Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

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

Lloyd Evans

The Brexit lovebirds: Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May

Together at last. Jeremy Corbyn and Theresa May are to meet, a deux, this afternoon to find a compromise on the withdrawal agreement. Hugely risky for both leaders. Last Wednesday, May called Corbyn ‘the biggest threat to our standing in the world.’ This week she wants him to help her write an international treaty. At

Katy Balls

Brexit minister quits over May’s soft Brexit plan

Theresa May’s decision to seek votes across the House and start Brexit talks with Jeremy Corbyn in a bid to pass her deal has sent ripples through the Conservative party today. Junior minister Nigel Adams this morning resigned over his discomfort with the new plan and now Brexit minister Chris Heaton-Harris has followed suit. In

Charles Moore

Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn both want to frustrate Brexit

There is a logic in Theresa May’s late move to Labour. It is the same logic by which both parties, at the last general election, put forward very similar policies about Brexit. They need to stay together (while feigning disagreement for party reasons) to frustrate what people voted for. Just as they both said in

Melanie McDonagh

What the critics of the ‘right to sex’ judge got wrong

There’s a terrifically sensitive, not to say odd, hearing underway this week in which social services are seeking to prevent a man from having sex with his wife. The couple have been married for more than 20 years but her deteriorating mental health means that social services aren’t confident that she’s able to give informed consent

What MPs decide about Brexit is becoming irrelevant

Maybe we will go for a Norway-Double Plus. Or A Canada-Minus. Or Common Market 2.0, or a WTO-Light, an EEA-Doubled, or an Enhanced EFTA or even a Singapore Sling or a White Russian. Okay, scratch those last two. I seem to have mixed up a list of options for leaving the European Union with a

Steerpike

Listen: Jacob Rees-Mogg vs the Today programme

Jacob Rees-Mogg was on the Today programme this morning to discuss Theresa May’s latest pitch to work with Jeremy Corbyn on a Brexit compromise. The ERG member was on familiar ground as he railed against this potential softer Brexit and the Remainer MPs who might make it possible, but sounded far less comfortable when, at

Stephen Daisley

Pope Francis has failed to understand the situation in Jerusalem

He may be infallible in matters apostolic but the Pope continues to err on matters temporal. Francis is both an extraordinarily humble pontiff and one given to superfluous, non-doctrinal pronouncements that elevate his personal worldview. His ‘Jerusalem proclamation’, signed on Sunday with Moroccan king Mohammed VI, is another example of the slender line between pontificating

Cindy Yu

Spectator Radio – a new podcast, every day

Seven years ago, The Spectator began podcasting. Why? For fun, really. Our writers were always being invited to comment on national broadcast shows, and so we thought, why not create our own? Podcasts gave us a chance to give our own writers their platform – if you don’t know what podcasts are, think radio programmes

Robert Peston

May’s Brexit plan could blow up the Conservative party

It is hard to overstate the magnitude of what happened in Cabinet today – because the prime minister and her senior ministers concluded over a record-breaking seven-and-a-half hours that Brexit was too hard for them to deliver on their own and they would now seek to enlist Jeremy Corbyn and Labour in finding a solution.

James Forsyth

Theresa May admits she will have to soften Brexit

Theresa May’s statement in Downing Street was very different in tone to what she said a fortnight ago. She praised the best efforts of MPs and tried to strike a more conciliatory pose. May said she would request another Article 50 extension but she wanted it to be short so the UK would not have

John Connolly

Backbench MPs change tack to prevent a no-deal Brexit

After MPs failed to reach a consensus on the kind of Brexit they wanted for a second time on Monday, the parliamentarians led by Oliver Letwin who are seeking to take control of the Brexit process have changed their strategy. Instead of having another series of indicative votes on Wednesday as originally planned, the backbenchers

Katy Balls

Last night’s vote takes some of the pressure off Theresa May

The failure of any Brexit option to wield a majority in Monday’s indicative votes appears to have eased the pressure on No. 10. Ministers had been expecting five hours of meetings today but the first cabinet has been delayed and there is an expectation that the meeting will not run on so long. One minister

The Parkfield protests have exposed the divisions in UK society

Parkfield primary school is an unremarkable redbrick building in the socially deprived Alum Rock area of Birmingham. A decision by the school’s leadership to teach younger children about same-sex relationships has triggered a firestorm of anger. As a BBC correspondent covering the patch, it’s worth reflecting how it started, what happened and to what extent

The link between terrorism and ideology

It has suddenly become very difficult to have a conversation about terrorism that isn’t overtly politicised or faintly hysterical. This is because so much of the discussion is dominated by what the late American philosopher Robert Nozick scornfully described as ‘normative sociology’ – the ‘study of what the causes of problems ought to be’. ‘If X is bad’, Nozick wrote, ‘and Y,

Why Common Market 2.0 is the Brexit we need

In recent weeks, there has been a lot of inaccurate media coverage of Common Market 2.0, which proposes that the UK should remain a member of the European Economic Area (EEA) after Brexit. The fundamental purpose of the EEA Agreement is to extend the benefits of the single market to countries that are outside the

James Forsyth

All Brexit options fail again. So, what happens now?

The second round of indicative votes has failed to break the Brexit deadlock. Again, none of the options got a majority. The customs union came closest for a second time, falling only three votes short on this occasion—273 to 276. Nick Boles’ Common Market 2.0 was 21 short of a majority despite the support of

Steerpike

Watch: Nick Boles quits the Tory party

Nick Boles has just quit the Tory party on the floor of the House of Commons. Minutes after his Common Market 2.0 Brexit plan was rejected by MPs, Boles took to his feet to announce his decision to resign the Tory whip. Here is what he said: ‘I have given everything to an attempt to

Tom Goodenough

MPs reject soft Brexit options in Commons vote

MPs have once again failed to reach an agreement on their preferred Brexit option. The Commons rejected a customs union with the EU, Common Market 2.0, a confirmatory public vote and a bid to revoke Article 50 in the event of no deal being reached. Four amendment were considered – and voted down – by

Steerpike

Tory MP: I was wrong to vote for May’s Brexit deal

There was a glimmer of hope for Theresa May and her Brexit deal on Friday when some Tory eurosceptics decided to vote for the withdrawal agreement after all. Richard Drax was one of them. But now he says he regrets doing so. He told the Commons this afternoon: I do feel I have not been

James Forsyth

Why Norway Plus is a step too far for the Tories

The Norway Plus campaign has had a big boost today with both Labour and the SNP saying they’ll whip in favour of it. Given that the plan might well be acceptable to the DUP – as it means that the backstop wouldn’t come into force – and the Cabinet will be abstaining, it has a

A Customs Union isn’t the way out of the Brexit mess

For some of those desperate for Britain to stay put in the EU, the Customs Union option functions as a handy obsession. Ministers, too, appear to be rallying behind this as a solution to the Brexit crisis, amid reports that dozens of senior Tories could vote for the UK to stay in a customs union in