Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

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

Max Jeffery

What caused Geidt’s flight?

10 min listen

Lord Geidt became the second ethics advisor to leave Boris Johnson’s government last night. It seems like Chinese steel tariffs was the straw that broke the camel’s back, but it is clear that he hasn’t been happy in the position for sometime. Will the Prime Minister be able to find anyone to pick up this

Lisa Haseldine

Is Lithuania next on Putin’s hitlist?

For countries bordering Russia, Putin’s war on Ukraine raises a disturbing question: might they be next? A bill put forward to the Duma’s lower house on June 8 suggests Lithuania is in the country’s sights. If passed, the proposal by MP Evgeniy Fedorov could see Russia potentially try to lay claim to Lithuania’s territory. Bonkers

Ross Clark

How high might interest rates go?

To nobody’s surprise, the Bank of England has hiked its base rate, and, equally unsurprisingly, it has chosen to do so by a relatively modest 0.25 per cent, bringing rates to 1.25 per cent. In 25 years of its existence, the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has never raised rates by more than 0.25 per cent

Katy Balls

Lord Geidt reveals what pushed him over the edge

Over twelve hours after Lord Geidt resigned from government, Downing Street has published his resignation letter. In his letter tendering his resignation as the Prime Minister’s independent adviser on minister’s interests, Geidt raises his concerns over partygate – noting how he ‘alluded’ to his ‘frustration’ previously – namely over Johnson’s failure to make any public

Michael Simmons

NHS waiting list rises above worst-case scenario

The NHS crisis continues, with a set of data today showing that the extra cash invested by the Tories is not translating into progress. Those waiting 52 weeks for an operation climbed 5 per cent to 323,000. This is worse than the NHS worst-case scenario leaked to The Spectator and published on our NHS data

The end of the Russian dream

I was born in the USSR in 1978 and was just becoming a teenager as the Soviet Union fell. For a schoolboy this was heady stuff. There was no more talk of ‘Good Old Lenin’ in class, and literature and history sessions suddenly became interesting. For the first time, we openly discussed the Stalinist Terror

The question Boris’s Rwanda plan critics must answer

There are many reasons to oppose Boris Johnson’s government’s policy of removing migrants to Rwanda. There’s certainly a moral case against this asylum policy, one which the Church of England’s bishops have presented with some force; and there could be a legal case which the Supreme Court will consider in July. But given the lack of achievements

Who might replace Putin once he’s gone?

How long does Putin have left? Combined with rumours of ill-health, Putin’s disastrous military campaign in Ukraine has led many to question how long he will cling to power. According to the Russian-Latvian independent news platform Meduza, ministers and oligarchs alike are unhappy at the scale of sanctions and the slow and uncertain progress of

Steerpike

Hoyle and grandees declare war on booze

First it was drugs, then it was the press. Now Lindsay Hoyle and the grandees on the House of Commons Commission have turned their guns on the demon drink in a bid to restore parliament’s reputation. They are seeking to end the age-old tradition of ‘Thirsty Thursdays’ in the Palace of Westminster, whereby staff enjoy

Steerpike

Coventry council’s Russian misadventure

More than three months on, the ramifications from Putin’s invasion are still being felt across the globe. Sanctions, protests, boycotts – couldn’t happen to a nicer despot. One minor consequence in England though has been the demise of Coventry council’s twin city relationship with Volgograd, formerly known as Stalingrad. The Labour-run authority temporarily cut ties with

The European court has seriously overstepped over Rwanda

Last night’s abrupt order from the European Court of Human Rights that led to the grounding of the first Rwanda deportation flight delighted progressives everywhere. They will of course say – rather in the fashion of twentieth-century home secretaries calmly refusing to reprieve a condemned murderer – that the law is merely taking its course,

Cindy Yu

Is the Rwanda flight block a problem for No.10?

11 min listen

The first flight taking asylum seekers to Rwanda was stalled just before takeoff after a late intervention from the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR). As Priti Patel returned to the Commons to defend the policy, many Tory MPs are furious at the prospect of the courts taking precedent over government legislation. Could this lead

Katy Balls

PMQs: Starmer is haunted by the ghost of Corbynism

Keir Starmer has of late come under pressure from his shadow cabinet to, in their words, stop ‘boring everyone to death’. In response, the Labour leader has told his colleagues that really ‘what’s boring is being in opposition’. However, the comments appear to have got under his skin. At today’s Prime Minister’s Questions, Starmer was

Ross Clark

Is the western boycott of Russian oil backfiring?

Ukraine’s ability to defend itself against the Russian invasion has surprised almost everyone outside the country, none more so, presumably, than Vladimir Putin. As for the West’s efforts to harm Russia through sanctions on its fossil fuel exports, that is a very different matter. Sanctions have not been entirely useless. According to a report by

How the Treasury maintains its power

Don’t bring a bottle. Your chances of finding a party in full swing down those chilly corridors are close to zero. At most, you might hear the sound of a distant flute playing a courante by Lully. As Sir Howard Davies puts it in this insider’s view, which manages to be both authoritative and quite

Steerpike

Putin’s Davos flops after sanctions

Oh dear. It seems that starting an unprovoked war is not the best way to inspire foreign investment in your country. For 25 years, the Kremlin has touted the St Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) as Russia’s equivalent of the World Economic Forum, using the summit to try to attract the forces of capital. But

Keir Starmer has got the Zzzz…Factor

Is it a fatal handicap for a politician to be dull? Since he became Labour leader two years ago, there has been a growing feeling that Sir Keir Starmer not only lacks the magical ‘X Factor’ that makes for political success, but is in proud possession of its polar opposite – what might be called

Steerpike

Met police refuse to release beergate details

Ello, ‘ello, ‘ello, what’s goin’ on ‘ere, then? Boris Johnson might have shrugged off partygate but Sir Keir Starmer is not so lucky. The investigation by Durham police into whether the Labour leader and his deputy broke lockdown restrictions in April 2021 is still ongoing, with no end date yet announced. Sir Keir has pledged to quit if

Stephen Daisley

Progressives, don’t cheer Rwanda’s setbacks

The last-minute halting of the first flight to Rwanda is humiliating for Boris Johnson’s government. An urgent interim measure from the European Court of Human Rights prompted a domino effect of domestic court orders that ended with the plane returning to base without passengers. The ECtHR’s order came down to three factors. First, that evidence from

The eurozone crisis is back

Stock markets are crashing. Bond yields are soaring. And the cryptos are evaporating. There is so much going on in the financial markets right now it would be hard to miss the most significant event. The eurozone crisis, which almost broke apart the single currency back in 2011 and 2012, is back. And this time

Philip Patrick

Gareth Southgate doesn’t know what he’s doing

‘The Hungar Shames’ screamed the Sun after England suffered a mortifying 0-4 defeat to the not so mighty Magyars last night. The game was England’s worst home defeat since 1928. England now face the humiliating prospect of relegation from Tier B of the Nations League where they may join the likes of Armenia, Montenegro, and Albania.

Katy Balls

The Rwanda policy is about sending a message

Is the UK on course to leave the European Convention on Human Rights? This is what some Tory MPs are pushing for after judges in Strasbourg blocked, at the last minute, the first deportation flight scheduled to take asylum seekers from the UK to Rwanda. After unsuccessful bids in the UK courts, a judgement from

Gus Carter

What’s the alternative to the Rwanda plan?

Last night, a Boeing 767 that was supposed to fly 130 asylum seekers to Rwanda returned to Spain without a single passenger on board. Throughout the day, the number of people planned for that flight had been whittled down by multiple legal challenges. Then, minutes before take-off, the European Court of Human Rights made an

James Kirkup

Why Starmer shouldn’t relaunch

Yesterday’s Times carried a report that will only add to Sir Keir Starmer’s troubles. It quoted several members of the shadow ministerial team suggesting that Starmer is dull and unimpressive.That will only sharpen the perception, held by quite a few Westminster people, that the Labour leader isn’t doing as well as he should be, given

Stephen Daisley

It’s time for Westminster to take on the SNP

There will not be a legally binding referendum on Scottish independence next year. It’s important to bear this in mind when chewing over Nicola Sturgeon’s latest pronouncement. The SNP leader held a press conference on Tuesday morning to publish a paper on independence in advance of a plebiscite Sturgeon says will be held in 2023.

John Ferry

Nicola Sturgeon’s Potemkin independence bid

In one sense Nicola Sturgeon’s new independence campaign launched today – which assumes there will be a second referendum within the next 18 months – does not signal anything new. Sturgeon did not unveil any new legislation. Nor did she submit a formal request for the UK government to allow a referendum to take place.

Patrick O'Flynn

Is Boris willing to make the Rwanda plan work?

Priti Patel’s first go at deporting migrants to Rwanda is turning before our eyes into one of those answers from the TV quiz show Pointless – when you see the on-screen counter drop remorselessly towards zero. At the time of writing, the counter for the number of migrants to be flown out to Rwanda is

Wanted: video editors

The Spectator is looking to expand Spectator TV. Our YouTube channel now has more than 160,000 subscribers, and we want to make more videos for our growing audience. We recently started filming Chinese Whispers and Women With Balls, and want to start putting out new shows later this year. We’re looking for talented video editors

Steerpike

Parly bosses propose ‘Stop Brexit’ man clampdown

There’s a spectre haunting Westminster: the spectre of Steve Bray. Steerpike envies those readers unfamiliar with the loud-mouthed protester, who has spent much of the past four years making life miserable for those who work in the House of Commons. Bray, known to many as ‘Stop Brexit’ man, spends a lot of his time disrupting