Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

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

The conservative case for extending free school meals

What do Conservatives care about? First, high-quality education and academic attainment. Second, value for money for the taxpayer. Third, (unless you are an arch-libertarian) recognition that the battle that must be won is not between big government or small government, but good government. Combating child hunger should, therefore, be a cause that all Conservatives can

Why the Italians understand Brexit

Italy is the only European country where Brexit is viewed with some sympathy and the British are not assumed to be off their heads. It is an odd state of affairs. The country benefited spectacularly from the EU. It transformed itself in a few years from a society of peasants and small craftsmen into an

The path between herd immunity and lockdown

In four decades working as an engineer and scientist, I have rarely known a more polarised time within the scientific field. The marketplace of ideas is depressingly split down the middle: you are either for herd immunity in the shortest possible time or for a full lockdown. There is, however, a third way: a method

Dr Waqar Rashid

Are we really seeing a second wave?

‘Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are pliable.’ There are lots of sayings about statistics, but I think this one by Mark Twain best describes where we are at, regarding hospital figures and Covid-19. There are three questions that currently need answering when it comes to the Covid debate: firstly, are we experiencing a second

James Forsyth

How will Number 10 deal with Joe Biden?

Donald Trump may have turned in a more effective debate performance last night, but Joe Biden is still the favourite to win the election next month. So, how would No. 10 deal with the election of a president who was so opposed to Brexit? There’s little doubt that the first few months of a Biden

John Connolly

What will tier three do to the North?

10 min listen

Tier three restrictions came into force in regions across the UK, including Greater Manchester, today. Blackpool Tower even lit up with an SOS message last night, as businesses warned they could not survive in the face of new measures. John Connolly discusses what the new restrictions will do to the North with Fraser Nelson and

Angela Merkel’s executive power-grab

Germany’s Social Democrats have remained quiet for months as their coalition partner, Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, have tackled this pandemic. But it seems as if some have had enough. Social Democrats are fed up with how the federal government has relied on decrees and executive orders during the epidemic, rather than using the proper legislative

Spain’s politics is fraying

‘Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.’ Philosopher George Santayana’s dictum is starting to look more relevant than ever in Spain, the country of his birth. The political temperature in Madrid has risen sharply in recent weeks and the language politicians are using has become unmistakably bellicose. The casual observer might

Stephen Daisley

Scottish devolution has been tested to destruction

The Scottish Tories are decidedly unenthusiastic about suggestions Westminster devolve further powers to the Scottish Parliament. A proposal to stave off independence by giving Holyrood additional financial powers and control over immigration, contained in a strategy memo leaked earlier this week, has been met with a chilly response from the party. I asked if they

Joe Biden’s one job in the presidential debate

Former Vice President Joe Biden had one job in tonight’s final presidential debate: tread water. Don’t get rattled. If President Trump talks about your son, Hunter, as if he were an influence peddler or a Chinese Communist Party crony, take a breath and don’t take the bait. And definitely don’t get so angry that you

This was Donald Trump’s best debate performance yet

Donald Trump had arguably his best debate performance ever on Thursday night, for which he owes a big ‘thank you’ to the Commission on Presidential Debates. The CPD instituted a new rule for the debate in Nashville: each candidate would have their microphone turned off while their opponent was giving their initial two-minute response. This

Katy Balls

Has Rishi Sunak performed a U-turn?

11 min listen

The Chancellor’s new economic package was much more generous than his previous plans, and when asked, Sunak insisted he was just reacting to the changing coronavirus situation. But could these pandemic developments really not be foreseen? Katy Balls talks to Kate Andrews and James Forsyth.

Isabel Hardman

The Tories’ food poverty problem

Marcus Rashford was just 12 when David Cameron took the Conservatives into government, a fact that makes the bones of most Westminster inhabitants creak. In the ensuing decade, he has learned to be not only a footballer of international renown, but also a measured and effective political campaigner. The Tories, on the other hand, appear

Was racism really to blame for Covid deaths?

If you believe that the whole system is racist, it’s only natural that you’ll interpret every bit of evidence as proof that racism exists everywhere. It certainly seems that way when it comes to Covid. When it emerged earlier this year that a substantial number of the doctors and nurses who died from coronavirus in

Katy Balls

Can Rishi win back the Tory backbenches?

When Rishi Sunak unveiled his winter economy plan last month, the idea was that the new financial support packages would be enough to help struggling businesses through a turbulent period. So the fact that the Chancellor appeared before the Commons today just a few weeks later to announce new measures shows that events are overtaking

Rishi Sunak needs to start planning for the post-Covid economy

More help for bars and restaurants. Grants for businesses that are forced to close. Additional funding for the self-employed. The Chancellor Rishi Sunak has started shaking the magic money tree again, promising extra assistance to keep the economy alive during a second wave of Covid-19. There is a problem, however, and as the Chancellor runs

Nick Tyrone

Boris Johnson is fighting on too many fronts

When Boris ran to become leader of the Conservative party – and again when he campaigned in December’s general election – he was pitched by his supporters as a unifier. Boris was going to get Brexit done and then lead the country into a new era – the spats of the previous half a decade

We’ve become desensitised to terror

Samuel Paty, a teacher at a school in a sedate suburb of Paris, was beheaded in the street last Friday by an 18-year old Chechen former asylum-seeker. The reason for this act of savagery was that Paty had shown cartoons of the prophet Muhammad to a school class, to illuminate a discussion about civic freedoms

James Forsyth

Why No. 10 keeps upping the ante on Brexit

The European Council conclusions issued last Thursday were a misstep by the European Union. It is positively Carthaginian to think that in a negotiation all the concessions have to come from one side. As I say in the magazine this week, No. 10 has seized on this overreach to push, not only for concessions on

Steerpike

Watch: Barnsley woman rebels against lockdown

It was announced yesterday that South Yorkshire would be the latest area to move into Tier 3 of the coronavirus restrictions, after Sheffield City mayor Dan Jarvis concluded negotiations with ministers. It appears though that not everyone in the region was thrilled at the news. BBC Yorkshire spoke to one woman in Barnsley who launched

James Kirkup

The Burnham that might have been

Watching anorak-clad Andy Burnham go toe-to-toe with Boris Johnson might leave Westminster-watchers of a certain vintage a bit bemused. How did the Burnham we used to know in the noughties become Manc lad-in-chief, a political brawler who gives brick-chewing interviews on the pavement? And perhaps more interestingly, what would have happened if the Burnham of

A circuit breaker would break the economy

More jobs will be lost in the long run. Businesses will go under. And government debt will soar even higher. Labour’s Shadow Chancellor Anneliese Dodds is pushing the argument that a circuit breaker — that is a short, sharp national lockdown — will be cheaper in the long run. It will keep the virus under

Steerpike

Watch: Angela Rayner accused of calling Tory MP ‘scum’

Angela Rayner was accused of some extraordinary behaviour in the Commons just now. The Labour deputy, unhappy with something Conservative MP Chris Clarkson said, allegedly decided to shout the word ‘scum’ across the chamber floor. Deputy Speaker Eleanor Laing appeared none too impressed… Rayner quickly shot back, denying that she used the phrase. 

John Connolly

Can Starmer capitalise on Boris’s lockdown woes?

11 min listen

Keir Starmer seemed unable to land a definitive blow on Boris Johnson in PMQs this afternoon, after the government imposed a tier three lockdown in Manchester. Will the Labour leader be able to capitalise on their lockdown woes? John Connolly speaks to James Forsyth and Katy Balls.

It’s time for schools to be politically impartial

While the government’s strategy on Covid might be as clear as mud, on the problem of a partisan school sector, it has recently struck a remarkably forthright position. Yesterday, the Minster for Equalities Kemi Badenoch said: ‘We do not want teachers to teach their white pupils about white privilege and inherited racial guilt. Let me