Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

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

The paradox of Israeli peace

Days after the UAE and Israel announced a deal, Israelis were already talking about trips to Dubai and all the great five star hotels the Gulf offers. At the same time, the country has been speculating about which states will be next in line to make peace. This sense of a coming era of peacemaking is

How the UK can become a science superpower

Boris Johnson wants the UK to be a science superpower. Part of his plan is to set up a new funding agency, loosely based on the much-praised Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) in the US. This agency, strongly pushed by the Prime Minister’s adviser Dominic Cummings, will back high-risk, high-payoff projects with minimal bureaucratic control.

Steerpike

James O’Brien on reopening schools: ‘When a child dies it’s on you’

James O’Brien has done it again. LBC’s eviscerator-in-chief has skewered yet another caller and their ill-thought-out opinions. No, not a moronic Brexiteer this time but a concerned parent. Wait, what?  The father in question had phoned O’Brien’s mid-morning show to share his concerns about his children, suggesting they really ought to get back into the classroom for their own

My Unionist faith is wearing thin

How does a believer lose the faith? It might begin with some quibble about a point of doctrine: the Virgin Birth, for instance. The believer struggles intellectually but cannot accept the dogma. What starts as a quibble then turns into an obstacle; as the doubt grows, the whole belief system starts to unravel. One day

Trump should pardon Edward Snowden

Edward Snowden says that he didn’t mean to end up in Russia when he fled after leaking secrets from his job at the United States National Security Agency (NSA). He writes in his autobiography, Permanent Record, that he agonised about where to go. Europe was impossible because of extradition. Africa was a ‘no-go zone’ because the

The myth of China’s ‘debt-trap diplomacy’

It is hard to remember now, but just five years ago David Cameron’s No. 10 was declaring a ‘golden era’ of Sino-British ties. Now the US sees China as a ‘strategic rival’ and Britain has joined a growing coalition of Western nations attempting to limit Beijing’s power. There are certainly good reasons to be wary

Ross Clark

Could blood plasma be used to treat Covid-19?

What are we to make of the decision by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to grant emergency use authorisation for blood plasma treatment of Covid-19? Is this a medical breakthrough or a dangerous move forced on it by a desperate president who sees his electoral chances slipping away unless he somehow gets on

Remembering Roger Scruton

As readers of The Spectator know, Sir Roger Scruton died in January this year at the age of 75. Before his death, he agreed to the setting up of an institution that would bear his name and seek to continue his legacy. The Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation is that institution and it has now launched. As

Ross Clark

What does the evidence say on re-opening schools?

It is still far from clear whether schools will succeed in re-opening next week, as government ministers, education authorities and unions battle it out over safety – or supposed safety – concerns. Now, as back in May, when the government first proposed re-opening schools, the unions have demanded evidence that it will be safe for

What does Gavin Williamson have to do before he is replaced?

All over the country, large numbers of businessmen are anxious. They do not know when – if ever – trading conditions will return to normal. So there is a squeeze on costs, a clampdown on inefficiency and – to use the euphemism – employees whose performance might have been acceptable in easier times are ‘let

Charles Moore

Why did Charles Moore get suspended by Twitter?

The week before last, I started tweeting. Actually, that is not true, but @1CharlesHMoore, bearing my photograph and brief CV, got going, advancing opinions in my name. The first tweets seemed harmless enough. ‘Charles Moore’ commented in support of the Lincoln Project (Never Trump Republicans), for example. But one had the feeling that once the

Patrick O'Flynn

Boris needs a minister for banana skins

Every prime minister needs a Willie, said Margaret Thatcher to a soundtrack of great national tittering. She was of course referring to William Whitelaw, her massively experienced deputy upon whose advice she relied to moderate her zanier impulses and views. Whitelaw fitted the bill as a non-ideological Conservative who had pledged his loyalty to her

Steerpike

When Corbyn met Meghan

What happens when a lifelong anti-monarchist meets a pair of vocal young royals? Might one expect a statement of principles from the republican, politely reminding the couple of their illegitimacy as would-be rulers? Or perhaps just a quiet detachment, civil but aversive.  It seems that when Jeremy Corbyn and his wife Laura Alvarez met Harry

Melanie McDonagh

Rejoice for the return of the church choir

Not all coronavirus research sounds like fun, but wouldn’t you just loved to have been at the session where 25 choristers were asked to sing Happy Birthday at varying volumes to determine whether or not it would be safe for choirs to get back to business. The exercise was carried out by academics collaborating with

Vegans, your soya milk is killing the planet

In the popular imagination, veganism and environmentalism go hand-in-hand. Both are championed – often in one voice – by ultra-progressive types who protest that we should live more ethically and responsibly in order to save the planet. Both types argue that eating less methane-emitting cattle and consuming more agriculturally-efficient crops is the first step we

Charles Moore

Without Black Wednesday there would have been no Brexit

Last Sunday, BBC Radio 4’s The Reunion devoted 40 minutes to ‘Black Wednesday’, as our exit from the ERM was mistakenly called. No one mentioned that the underlying aim behind the ERM was to help create the conditions for a European single currency, and that our falling out ensured that Britain would not join.  Only

New polling: Half of Brits think Scotland will break away

Boris Johnson is desperate to avoid becoming the prime minister who oversees the break-up of the Union, yet it appears many voters are already resigned to the prospect of an independent Scotland.  A new poll for Coffee House has revealed that 46 per cent of Brits think it’s likely that Scotland will leave the UK within the next

Dr Waqar Rashid

We’re stuck in a coronavirus time warp

There is actually some good news emerging from the tragic gloom of the Covid-19 epidemic. Despite some relaxation of lockdown rules in recent weeks, markers of serious infection – hospital admissions and deaths – continue to fall. There are several reasons for this but undoubtedly a learning process has taken place and we now understand

Long live the National Trust

If the second son of an ageing Marquess decided to dress in a pink bikini, rename himself Madame Frou Frou and hung the family Canaletto sideways in his crumbling Lincolnshire pile while lighting his farts we’d all chortle at the charm of the eccentric English toff. You can get away with almost anything if your

Katy Balls

Britain’s £2 trillion debt problem

12 min listen

UK debt has hit £2 trillion, the Office for National Statistics said today – an increase of over £200 billion on last year. What does this mean for the economy, how does the UK compare to the rest of Europe, and does Boris Johnson plan to keep on spending? Katy Balls speaks to Fraser Nelson

Katy Balls

Brexit blame game as latest talks stall

Despite Boris Johnson’s call for Brexit negotiations to speed up, the seventh round of talks has today ended with little progress. Neither side is bothering to suggest the latest round was particularly productive. Instead, the comments today from Michel Barnier and the UK’s lead negotiator David Frost were focussed on attributing blame for the current deadlock. Barnier said

In defence of Netflix’s ‘Cuties’

Somewhere on my coffee table lurks a recent Boden catalogue. It shows pictures of beautiful, healthy, impressively clean – and, of course, very well dressed – children. They spend their time cavorting on sunny beaches or striding down iconic London streets.  This week, images of children have provided a rare moment of consensus in our

Is this the end of American democracy?

21 min listen

Joe Biden accepted the Democratic Party’s nomination at their virtual convention last night, bringing his three-day coronation to an end with a well-received speech. Throughout this year’s DNC, speakers have warned that America’s political foundations are at stake in the upcoming election – Barack Obama urged voters not to let the Republicans ‘take away your

Joe Biden’s Republican Convention

Joe Biden’s range of emotional expression has narrowed with age – when he wants to convey feeling now, he shouts. Anger is the only thing that gets through, even when he’s trying to be hopeful or inspiring. And his acceptance remarks at the Democratic convention were well short of inspirational: the nominee didn’t seem tired,

It’s a mistake to think all positive Covid tests are the same

Italy was the first country in Europe to implement lockdown, so what can we learn from the country’s attempt to impose restrictions to stamp out Covid-19? And what does Italy’s experience of finding a path out of lockdown teach Britain as it emerges out of lockdown itself? Ten towns in the province of Lodi, Lombardy, and