Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

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

Ross Clark

Reeves’s glum Budget briefings are hurting the economy

Rachel Reeves’s error before last autumn’s Budget might have been written off as the act of a ministerial rookie. She kept making us miserable by telling us about fiscal black holes and telling us that huge tax rises would be required to fix it – with the result that, come Budget day, the outlook for

Freddy Gray

Was the Minneapolis shooting an anti-Catholic hate crime?

‘Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now,’ said Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey, standing near the scene of yesterday’s Catholic school shooting in his city. ‘These kids were literally praying.’ I think he was trying to say, ‘This is no time for empty platitudes’ – or something similar. The words sounded horribly

The folly of blaming boomers for France’s financial crisis

Ministers are packing up their offices. Emmanuel Macron’s government, desperate to shift the narrative and rally support ahead of its confidence vote on 8 September, is now blaming baby boomers for the financial crisis. Prime minister Bayrou is reframing the crisis as the result of decades of policies favouring older voters: generous pensions, protected benefits,

The unstoppable rise of Send

As students go back to school this September, headteachers across the country are being forced to confront a system in crisis. While children reconnect with their friends and swap stories of the summer holidays, an ever-increasing number will have a little ‘S’ next to their name on the register – for Send, or Special Educational

Mark Galeotti

Why has Putin gone after the British Council in Kyiv?

Is Moscow targeting European institutions in Kyiv in the hope of ‘sabotaging peace’ as Keir Starmer has claimed? Putin probably thinks he’s actually doing the opposite. Last night saw another massive attack on Ukraine: 31 missiles and 629 drones, of which five and 66 got through the country’s air defences, respectively. Many hit Kyiv, where

Revenge of the left

12 min listen

James Heale writes in The Spectator this week that Keir Starmer is facing a three-pronged attack from the left: the Greens, the Gaza independents and this new – as yet untitled – Corbyn party. It was not so long ago that we were giving Starmer credit for his ruthless streak, purging the party of the

Philip Patrick

Man Utd vs Grimsby is what football should be about

Poor old Ruben Amorim. The sight of the hapless Manchester United manager cowering in the Blundell Park dugout seemingly praying that his billion-pound team could somehow scrape through on penalties against fourth-tier Grimsby in the Carabao Cup last night is now indelible. Perhaps only the tear drenched face of Rachel Reeves cowering in her own

Steerpike

A fifth of MPs’ questions now ‘carded’

The House of Commons returns next week – and not a moment too soon for some in government. After a summer in which Nigel Farage has dominated the airwaves, Labour is keen to try and move the news agenda onto their preferred choice of subject. With rumours swirling about a reshuffle, No. 10 will be

Ed Davey’s pathetic Gaza boycott

Ed Davey has built an entire political career on pratfalls, water slides and staged wipe-outs, like a children’s entertainer who accidentally wandered into Westminster. Paddleboarding into the lake, hurling himself down a slip ’n’ slide, spinning on teacups at Thorpe Park, he’s like one of those tragically comic idiot acts on Britain’s Got Talent, selected

Steerpike

Ed Davey to boycott Trump’s state banquet

Buckingham Palace has endured its fair share of shocks and crises over the years. But last night, His Majesty was hit by the latest bombshell: Sir Ed Davey will not be attending his upcoming banquet to host Donald Trump. The Liberal Democrat leader is boycotting the event in protest at the President’s stance on Gaza.

Can India’s economy survive Trump’s tariffs?

President Trump’s 50 per cent tariffs on India kicked in yesterday. The timing could not be worse: in May, India overtook Britain, Germany and Japan to become the fourth largest economy in the world. According to a report by EY only this week, it was already set to become the second largest globally by 2038,

Iran may be down, but it’s not out

The sirens began at about 5 am. A Houthi ballistic missile was on its way, over Jerusalem, in the direction of the coastal plain. After half a minute or so, I began to hear the familiar sound of doors scraping and muffled voices, as people made their way to the shelter.   It has become

How long can Miliband’s net zero wheeze last?

The current head of energy policy in this country is Muppet-made-flesh Ed Miliband. While he makes a speciality of eye-catching policy announcements; notably playing a tuneless rendition of ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ under a wind turbine, he is proving less capable of any form of actual policy implementation. His absolutism is increasingly bringing him into conflict

Freddy Gray

Can the Democrats save themselves?

17 min listen

Freddy Gray speaks to Semafor journalist David Weigel about the Democrat’s summer meeting in Minnesota which was cut short following the tragic shooting at a school today. They discuss what we know about the shooting so far, how the Democrats can reset their stance on law and order, and whether they can unify their stance

Steerpike

‘Cash for questions’ Tory MP cleared

‘Tory gain!’ is a cry heard less and less frequently these days. But in a rare piece of good news for the current HM Opposition, Tory MP George Freeman has today been cleared of ‘Cash for Questions’ accusations by the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner. The former Science Minister referred himself to the watchdog back in June following

Elon Musk is wrong about Nigel Farage

Elon Musk, the tech titan who has revolutionised space travel and electric cars, has once again waded into British politics with the subtlety of a Cybertruck crashing into a late summer vicarage garden party. His latest intervention came via a tweet endorsing Advance UK, the fledgling splinter group led by Ben Habib, former Reform UK

James Heale

Reform’s new MSP is a portent of the future

Another red-letter day for Reform as the party unveils its second defector at Holyrood. Graham Simpson, a Conservative member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP), has today crossed the floor to join the ranks of Nigel Farage’s ever-expanding army. He is Reform’s second ever MSP, after Michelle Ballantyne’s short-lived spell from January to May 2021. Simpson,

Steerpike

Labour: Farage wants Britain to fail

Following Farage’s deportation declaration yesterday, Labour have gone on the attack. In a speech today on the future of EU relations, Europe Minister Nick Thomas-Symonds hit out at Farage, declaring he wants Britain to fail. Speaking at The Spectator, he told the assembled great and the not-so-good of HM Press Gallery that: Aside for his

Gavin Mortimer

France has lost control of its borders

The cynic might wonder if Keir Starmer and his government aren’t a little relieved that France is once more on the brink of political chaos. Now they have a convenient excuse for why waves of small boats continue to land on English beaches. Starmer’s Gallic counterpart, Francis Bayrou, has called a vote of confidence in

James Heale

Labour’s latest Farage attack? Brexit

As recess draws towards its close, two issues continue to plague the government. The first: how best to attack Nigel Farage, riding high on a wave of migration outrage? The second: how to frame ministers’ modest protest, at a time when the national mood favours radical change? Today, it was the turn of Nick Thomas-Symonds

Migrant riots have come to Switzerland

A stolen scooter, a police chase, and a fatal crash left a 17-year-old of migrant background dead. Within hours, Lausanne erupted in the worst rioting Switzerland has seen in decades. Two nights of violence tore apart Switzerland’s image as a stable and quiet country. Masked youths, overwhelmingly black, took to the streets, setting bins alight,

Can Kim Jong-un be persuaded to meet Donald Trump?

Hours after his first bilateral meeting with Donald Trump earlier this week, the South Korean President Lee Jae-myung admitted that he feared that his one-to-one would become a ‘Zelensky moment’. Although the reality was far from the case, it made for somewhat vomit-inducing listening. As Lee showered Trump with praise for his handling of North

Can Taylor Swift make marriage great again?

Taylor Swift is engaged – and women the world over are rejoicing. Not merely because they care about Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce or the Ralph Lauren shorts he wore at the proposal, but because, in a profound way, her story has become theirs. Swift is not just the world’s biggest pop star;

It’s time to stop treating Anna Netrebko as a pariah

When I learned that the Royal Opera House had booked Russian soprano Anna Netrebko to sing Tosca in the new production which opens its 2025/26 season next month (and, later in the season, Turandot), I felt a surge of anger. How could they be so callous, so blasé, about the boycott of Russian artists with