Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

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

Kate Andrews

Can the NHS cope with Covid?

25 min listen

At Thursday’s coronavirus press conference, Sir Simon Stevens, chief executive of the NHS, said a second wave ‘is real and it’s serious’, as he warned that 11,000 people were already in hospital with the virus. Is the NHS able to cope with another spike in infections, and has the government adequately prepared for winter? Kate

Gavin Mortimer

Europe’s cowardly response to terror

It says much about the endemic moral cowardice of Europe that Emmanuel Macron is being hailed as the saviour of the continent. For what? For having the audacity to utter a single word: ‘Islamism’. In identifying the ideology behind the wave of brutal terrorism that has swept Europe this century, Macron has also shown more

In defence of Neville Chamberlain

Among the unorthodox enthusiasms of Lloyd George was an interest in phrenology, the pseudo-science that holds that an individual’s character can be revealed by the shape and size of the cranium. Of his first sighting of the rising politician Neville Chamberlain during the Great War, Lloyd George later wrote, ‘When I saw that pinhead, I

The dangers of knee-jerk lockdown scepticism

From the very start of the pandemic, modelling projections and empirical data have been twisted to suit different agendas. Fanatics on both sides of the debate have cherry-picked data — whether those demanding tougher restrictions or those on the other side who believe that the virus is harmless and that this is all big fuss

John Keiger

Emmanuel Macron’s Trumpian transformation

This new world disorder is distorting our vision, so please excuse an apparently fatuous question. Is Emmanuel Macron turning into Donald Trump? As the 45th President of the US prepares to step down from the world stage he may be leaving behind another disciple – Emmanuel Macron (Trump would say a ‘mini-me’). The comparison is

James Forsyth

What does Biden’s win mean for Britain?

So, how will Joe Biden’s victory affect US-UK relations? As I write in the Times, the downsides for this government are obvious. Biden fiercely opposed Brexit and those around him, like many on the American left, look to London and see a mini-Trump. They will regard other leaders from Merkel to Macron as more natural

Nicola Sturgeon is not so different to Donald Trump

Nicola Sturgeon sank to a new low this morning. The SNP leader bizarrely seemed to compare opposing a second independence referendum in Scotland to Trump refusing to concede the US election. This is, of course, the same SNP leader who still refuses to accept the SNP’s 2014 referendum loss – a referendum her party claimed

Ross Clark

ONS study finds infections slowed before lockdown

The weekly ONS infection survey suggests that the rise in prevalence of Covid-19 in England has levelled off. Not only that, it suggests that the rate of new infections has actually fallen. In the week to 31 October, the ONS estimates that 618,700 people had Covid-19 — about 1 in 90 of the population. That

Dr Waqar Rashid

Should we have abandoned regional restrictions?

There has been much to question about the government’s policies during the coronavirus crisis, but the decision to announce a second lockdown this week was perhaps the most perplexing. One unusual aspect was that with the announcement of the regional tier policy in October, Boris Johnson had finally managed to distance himself from his increasingly

Katy Balls

Was the three tier system working all along?

14 min listen

As Liverpool begins it’s mass testing trial, ONS figures published today show that the coronavirus infection rate was fell in the week ending October 31. So was the tiered system working all along, meaning the new lockdown is unnecessary? Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth about the new data, Scottish independence, and

Europe’s cities are becoming a refuge for Islamist extremists

Britain’s terror threat level has been upgraded to ‘severe’ this week, following jihadist attacks in both France and Austria. Raising a terror alert is not enough though to stop more attacks. The government’s security and bureaucratic response to terror is always playing catch-up and constantly on the defensive. And unless we take the time to

Ross Clark

Calculating the human cost of lockdown

The argument is now the wrong way around, Chris Whitty told MPs on Wednesday, among those critics of the first lockdown who argue that it resulted in fewer people accessing medical treatment, fewer diagnoses and more deaths from non-Covid causes. If hospitals are stuffed with Covid patients, the chief medical officer asserted, then they do not have the capacity

Berlin is banking on Biden

Germany’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, has said he wants to revitalise his country’s relationship with the United States following the presidential election. Tensions between the Trump-led White House and Berlin have been rising for years — to the point where, during the campaign, Trump told his supporters that ‘Germany wants me out’, mentioning the long-time transatlantic

Joe Biden should prepare for gridlock

The Democratic Party was anticipating a blue wave this fall, a victory of such magnitude that Republicans would be spending the next two years fighting amongst themselves rather than controlling the purse strings. Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in the House of Representatives, was so confident of this blue wave scenario that she sent

Kate Andrews

Trump doubles down on unfounded election claims

Tensions over the election outcome are escalating in the United States, as President Donald Trump repeated unsubstantiated claims of election fraud. Nearly a day and a half after Trump prematurely declared victory, he took to the stage at a press conference held in the White House and did so again, arguing ‘if you count the legal votes, I easily

Katy Balls

Has Rishi Sunak lost the argument?

14 min listen

The Chancellor announced new furlough measures today, something that he has long been opposed to. Katy Balls speaks to Kate Andrews and James Forsyth about whether or not Rishi Sunak has lost the argument.

Steerpike

NHS boss’s dig at Whitty and Vallance

Sir Simon Stevens, the chief exec of NHS England, joined Boris Johnson during this evening’s Downing Street press conference where the pair sought to justify England’s second national lockdown. Stevens, however, went one step further: he had a dig at Chris Whitty and Patrick Vallance. He told the press conference:   I’ve watched a number of these press

James Forsyth

Boris can’t afford a third lockdown

Boris Johnson is holding a press conference at 5 p.m. on the new England-wide lockdown. This follows last night’s vote where thirty-odd Tory MPs voted against the new measures. But listening to that debate, it was clear that even among many of the Tories who voted for the lockdown there is deep scepticism about the

Katy Balls

Has Rishi Sunak lost the argument?

These days Rishi Sunak’s appearances before the House of Commons tend to mark changes to pre-existing economic support schemes. His proposed winter economy plan didn’t survive a month before alterations had to be made. But even by recent standards, today’s statement marks a big shift for the Chancellor. Not only is the furlough scheme back — despite

Steerpike

Watch: SNP politician grilled by Andrew Neil

SNP politicians often get an easy ride when they appear on politics programmes south of the border, where most of the discussion tends to revolve around the performance of the Westminster government. Unfortunately, that was not the case for the SNP MP Alyn Smith, who appeared on the BBC’s Politics Live this afternoon. Near the

Kate Andrews

Sunak’s furlough extension paves the way for more lockdowns

England has only been back in national lockdown for a matter of hours and already economic support packages are rolling in — not for the duration of this lockdown (furlough was already confirmed until 2 December) but for the months to follow after the country exits lockdown. Chancellor Rishi Sunak has abandoned a return to

Trump is right not to concede

I am happy to see that President Trump is acting on the maxim of the month: Don’t concede if you didn’t lose. Any other GOP president would be on the defensive now. ‘Yes, there was voter fraud, but, but, but…’ That dangerous conjunction is a fledging concession just waiting to spread its wings and fly.

Gabriel Gavin

The EU is powerless to stop Poland’s liberal lapse

Zoliborz is one of Warsaw’s most prestigious addresses. Its leafy streets are popular with journalists, university professors and, as of last week, thousands of protestors. The suburb is home to Jaroslaw Kaczynski, Poland’s former prime minister who has led the ruling Law and Justice party for close to two decades. Despite holding no government office

What Keir Starmer can learn from Joe Biden

Even before the final result of the US Presidential election was known, the British left was ready with its hot takes. Momentum, which continues to proudly hold aloft the flickering flame of Corbynism, was amongst the first out of the traps, claiming that Joe Biden’s failure to achieve a landslide victory confirmed, ‘what we already