Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

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

The death of Ian Watkins shows our prisons are out of control

Many have celebrated, and perhaps none will have mourned the murder of former Lostprophets frontman and prolific sadistic paedophile Ian Watkins in HMP Wakefield. But his killing in the notionally high-security Category A prison demonstrates just how little control exists in our jails. Indeed, just two weeks ago HM Inspector of Prisons published a report

Don’t blame Trump for the crypto crash

Hundreds of billions have been wiped off the value of the crypto currencies. A prominent Ukrainian blogger and influencer on digital coins has been found dead. And traders are bracing themselves for a rocky start to trading on Monday as markets start to tumble. We will have to see whether it develops into a full-blown

The folly of releasing Hamas terrorists for peace

Sorry to spoil the party, but there’s one aspect of this week’s Middle East peace deal which is pure madness. As part of the US-brokered ceasefire in Gaza, Israel is set to free 250 Palestinian terrorists serving lengthy prison sentences for murder and other serious offences. Many of them have boasted of their crimes and

Max Jeffery

Jeremy Corbyn’s new party is self-destructing

On Friday evening in the Windrush Lounge at The World Transformed conference in Manchester, British socialism was autocannibalising. No more comrade this or comrade that. No other little politburo manners. In a storage unit in an industrial estate – this was the lounge – Max Shanly, an influential left-wing activist and former Momentum activist, was

Diane Keaton was a true original

The death of the actress Diane Keaton at the age of 79 was greeted with an understandable mixture of sadness and surprise. Sadness, because the death of one of the leading ladies of the Seventies and Eighties (and beyond) robs the film industry of one of its true originals, and surprise, because nobody had any

Why the Maori party keep doing the haka in parliament

Parliamentary proceedings in New Zealand once again screeched to a halt this week after an unsanctioned performance of the haka caused bedlam in the country’s normally genteel debating chamber, forcing the speaker to suspend the House. The latest war dance took place on Thursday after a new MP, Oriini Kaipara, 42, of the nativist Maori

Who killed the London Stock Exchange?

Stock exchanges around the world compete with each other to entice the most exciting companies to sell their shares on their markets, via Initial Public Offerings (IPOs). London was once the financial capital of the world, and a leader in IPOs. Now it has fallen to number 23 in the global IPO rankings, having been surpassed

What Margaret Thatcher meant to Hungary

It is a most fitting tribute: an iron and steel statue of the Iron Lady in a city once behind the Iron Curtain. And not just any city – but Budapest, a place that Mrs Thatcher electrified with her visit in February 1984. The statue commemorating her 100th birthday was unveiled last week in the

Philip Patrick

Japan has a bear problem

In a scenario out of a horror film, or Werner Herzog documentary perhaps, Japan is experiencing a spate of bear attacks, including a series of fatalities. Over the last few years, the number of encounters, attacks and deaths have all surged. This year alone, since April, 200 people have been attacked and six killed. The

Steerpike

Watch: Activist blasts SNP for ‘mistrust’ in party

Well, well, well. SNP conference has gotten off to a rather, er, interesting start. As one might expect, the subject of independence has dominated the first day of the big meet-up in Aberdeen. The party’s strategy as laid out by First Minister John Swinney says that an SNP majority at next year’s Holyrood election would

The tyranny of ‘kindness’

The vice-chancellor of Oxford University, Professor Irene Tracey, has been giving some gloriously counterintuitive advice recently on how to safeguard free speech in academia. On Tuesday, she claimed that teaching the ethos of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) ‘goes hand in hand with our commitment to academic freedom and free speech.’ Yet diversity training always

Is anyone listening to the Scottish Tories?

There may have been a decent turnout of both youthful Tory members and elderly cardholders at this year’s Conservative party conference in Manchester, but it was the missing group in the middle that made all the difference. The crowds were significantly slimmed down without the corporate types, with parts of the venue ghostly quiet by

Steerpike

Stephen Flynn attacks Farage over Russia

To the north of Scotland, where in Aberdeen the SNP conference has begun. Activists are gathering, once again, to try and figure out how exactly Scotland might achieve independence after a decisive 2014 referendum, a Supreme Court slap down and, er, almost 20 years of substandard SNP rule. Best of luck, chaps! The party’s Westminster

In reappointing Lecornu, Macron is clinging to power

Emmanuel Macron has reappointed Sébastien Lecornu as prime minister, a loyalist whose government collapsed in mere weeks, and whose resignation Macron accepted just days ago. The announcement by the Elysée was made at 10pm on Friday night following two days of tense talks with party leaders. This is a last-ditch attempt by Macron to retain control, to

My brief career as an ‘Eye in the Sky’ airborne reporter 

I was watching Slow Horses the other night and as usual, there was some sort of terrorist-related mayhem which had brought London to a standstill. But there was also a little anachronism. Hovering over the gridlocked traffic was a light aircraft, once commonly known as an ‘Eye in the Sky’ that used to fly above London in the

Padel is a disgrace

Why the hell not? I thought to myself as a friend invited me for a game of padel at her Oxfordshire members’ club, the grotesquely baroque Estelle Manor. As a self-confessed tennis head, I thought this might have the same feel of the restrained geometry and simmering tension of the tennis court that I have spent a lifetime admiring. I imagined a game

No wonder the Irish hate Netflix’s House of Guinness

Beer, Brits, and bad language are the few culturally accurate elements of the new Netflix series, House of Guinness. Loved by American and UK critics, hated by Irish critics, the series on the battle for control of the iconic Irish Guinness family brewery in 19th-Century revolutionary Ireland has sharply divided opinion. Are we Irish an over-sensitive

Taylor Swift has shattered feminism’s fragile lie

Taylor Swift’s new album, The Life of a Showgirl, has done more than dominate the charts. It’s reignited one of the oldest – and fiercest – battles in modern womanhood. Once again, the pop icon has found herself cast as both heroine and heretic in the (pop) culture war’s endless inquest into what women should want. In The Tortured Poets Department, the mask began to

Who is the greatest ever conservative?

40 min listen

From wartime leadership to economic revolutions, Conservative figures have shaped Britain’s past and present. But who stands out as the greatest of them all? In this conversation, recorded live at Conservative Party Conference: Katie Lam makes the case for William Pitt the Younger, Camilla Tominay nominates Margaret Thatcher, William Atkinson points out the number of

Svitlana Morenets

Putin’s winter campaign begins

For the fourth winter in a row, Vladimir Putin believes now is the time when Ukrainians will finally break. Russia’s campaign of systematic strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure has begun once again with the first cold winds. Last night, Putin unleashed nearly 500 Shahed drones, decoys and missiles against Ukraine, launched simultaneously at different

When will Labour be honest about its China spy problem?

Yvette Cooper managed to say ‘let me be clear’ twice, in a couple of minutes during her interview with Nick Robinson on the Today Programme this morning. For seasoned Labour-watchers, the phrase ‘let me be clear’ was one inherited from the grand panjandrum of political deceit – Tony Blair himself – and is almost always an

Freddy Gray

Is AI satanic?

28 min listen

Max Tegmark is an author and professor doing AI and physics research at MIT. He joins Freddy to discuss the moral and spiritual dangers of artificial intelligence, the rise of Silicon Valley’s ‘tech overlords’, and why he believes technology must remain a tool – not a master.

The real Gaza deal unfolds in the next 72 hours

The machine is beginning to turn. The ceasefire agreed between Israel and Hamas, brokered with the direct involvement of President Trump, his envoy Steve Witkoff, and adviser Jared Kushner, has now formally taken effect. Hostages are not yet returned, but the mechanism for their release is in place. According to the agreement, Hamas must release

How the Royals jumped on the Mental Health Day bandwagon

Whether you consider World Mental Health Day an important and necessary means of drawing attention to often overlooked issues, or a gimmicky fad that somehow manages to overlook the other 364 days a year that such matters are equally important, there is no doubt that the royal family have been doing their bit to raise awareness. Never

How can the Tories turn it around? Live

40 min listen

Recorded live in Manchester, during the Conservative Party conference, Michael Gove sits down with Tim Shipman, Madeline Grant and Tim Montgomerie to discuss how the Tories can turn their fortunes around. Do the Tories need to show contrition for their record in government? Has the party basically been split ever since the Coalition years? And