Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

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

Robert Peston

What do the Tory rebels want?

“The crypto-fascists are in charge”. So spoke one of the senior Tories planning to rebel tomorrow against Boris Johnson – which captures in its visceral anger the magnitude of the gulf between the new prime minister and those of his backbenchers who want a no-deal Brexit taken off the table. This afternoon the Tory rebels

Why the far-left really does think there is a ‘coup’

On Saturday thousands of people across Britain demonstrated against Boris Johnson’s recently-announced prorogation of parliament. Despite the heated response it provoked, proroguing parliament is a standard device which over the years has been employed by governments of all stripes. And as parliament was to be suspended for a few weeks during September and October in

Spectator competition winners: acrostic politicians

The latest challenge called for an acrostic poem about a politician in which the first letter of each line spells the name of that politician. While most of you set your sights on modern-day notables, David Silverman (as well as his poignant prizewinning haiku) submitted a nice double-dactylic portrait of Caesar Augustus. Here’s an extract:

Poles are in a quandary over Brexit

At first, Brexit was seen in Poland as a glorious but chaotic farce. As strange as it sounds, three long, grim years after the referendum, the whole thing seemed, to them, like a glorious chaotic farce. Most of them supported Poland’s membership of the EU but the irreverent Nigel Farage was more relatable than a

Robert Peston

An election is coming – and soon

I am finding it hard to capture the scale of the parliamentary battle that will start on Tuesday – because what is at stake is huge, complicated and shifting. One of its more important combatants described it to me as a “once-in-a-century crisis”. Another told me it would not only decide how and whether the

Sunday shows round-up: the plot to stop no deal

Keir Starmer – Next week is our last chance to stop no deal The Andrew Marr Show returned this week after a summer break, just before Parliament is due to sit again on Tuesday. However, with the Prime Minister set to prorogue Parliament ahead of a new session, there are only 16 sitting days left

Fraser Nelson

Boris was right to u-turn over Freedom of Movement

For all its ferocious momentum, Boris Johnson’s government is capable of making pretty bad mistakes – as we saw with Priti Patel’s announcement that free movement of people will end with Brexit on 31 October. A problem, when it hasn’t worked out let alone revealed what regime will replace it. As I say in this

The troubling rise of political violence in Saxony

Saxony is Germany’s most troublesome state. For the past four years, this former part of the communist east has been hit by riots, weekly protests and been a symbol of the stubborn economic gulf between the country’s east and west. Now, a state election in the region on Sunday brings a fresh challenge for Angela Merkel, where

Charles Moore

It makes sense for the over-75s to pay the licence fee

Dorothy Byrne, Channel 4’s head of news, last week told the Edinburgh television festival: ‘Here is what we all need to decide: what do we do when a known liar becomes our prime minister?’ Yet she is surprised when Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn — both of whom she calls ‘cowards’ — do not come

The forgotten towns that will decide Boris Johnson’s fate

If Boris Johnson does call a snap election this year, his fortune will be decided in the same places that swung the referendum for Brexit. Britain’s forgotten towns, places like my home town of Consett, perched high in the hills of north-west Durham, will determine the Prime Minister’s fate. In Consett, there is little sign now

Why I’m sick of politics being described as a circus

Jon Sopel has a new book out this month – A Year at the Circus. But the BBC’s North America editor hasn’t spent the last 12 months taming roaring lions in a sawdust ring or swinging on a trapeze wearing a skin-tight sparkly leotard. He’s been covering Trump’s presidency. And the ‘circus’ he refers to

The Spectator Podcast: what kind of Brexit does Boris want?

In these fractious times, a public compliment from the President of the United States can be a mixed blessing for a British politician. On the one hand, Boris Johnson must be delighted to hear the leader of the free world dub him “exactly what the U.K. has been looking for”, especially after the relentless criticism

Boris Johnson’s Parliament shutdown isn’t unconstitutional

Has Boris Johnson done a Charles I and shut down Parliament indefinitely? The headlines this week might lead you to think so. ‘Uproar as Boris Johnson shuts down parliament to protect Brexit plan’, reported the FT. John Bercow called it ‘a constitutional outrage’. ‘It’s tantamount to a coup against Parliament,’ raged former attorney general Dominic Grieve. Nicola

Alexander Pelling-Bruce

How Boris Johnson boxed his Brexit opponents in

As a Leave voter, it is satisfying to watch Boris’s Johnson’s bold Brexit plan unfold. The predictable backlash to it – what Jacob Rees-Mogg called the ‘candyfloss of outrage’ – is also an entertaining spectacle, with some of those most determined to stop Brexit resorting to ever lurid analogies to describe the Prime Minister. But why

Steerpike

John Major offers his prorogation advice

It’s all out war in the Conservative party this morning, after the former Tory Prime Minister John Major announced that he was joining a legal action (started by the Remain campaigner Gina Miller) which will argue that Boris Johnson’s prorogation of parliament was unlawful. In his statement Major grandly stated that: ‘I promised to that,

Kate Andrews

Prorogation and the politics of the English language

Funny how language changes over time. Or rather, how we change language to advance our agenda. Sometimes it’s a natural process, a long process – what works survives and what’s easy thrives. The word ‘smart’ originated as something to describe pain or a stinging sensation. The ‘sting’ associated with the word moved to an understanding of ‘quickness’ or

The case for proroguing Congress

It’s time for Donald Trump to take a leaf from Boris Johnson, for the master to take tuition from his pupil. Instead of trying to placate his critics, Trump should prorogue the American Congress. The approval rating of Congress is somewhere in the teens, even lower than Trump’s, so most Americans would likely greet such a move

Isabel Hardman

What will the Tory and Labour election campaigns look like?

We know that the Conservatives are gearing up for an election in the next few months. Their official line is that they don’t want one, largely because it will appear better if they are apparently pushed into a poll, but that doesn’t mean that preparations aren’t well underway. One of the main benefits of proroguing

Brendan O’Neill

The rage against Boris

This morning, a petition demanding ‘Do not prorogue Parliament’ is doing the rounds. At the time of writing, more than 1.4 million people have signed it. Remainers are very excited. They’re holding the petition up as proof of a mass outpouring of democratic disdain for Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament for a few more

Robert Peston

It’s time for Boris Johnson’s opponents to decide what they want

Boris Johnson sees method in and admires some of Trump’s apparent madness: not the ‘send them home’ abusive chants about ethnic minority Democrat critics, but the refusal to play by the normal rules of politics or international relations (threatening to nuke North Korea before talking with its despot; imposing new tariffs on China while claiming to

Steerpike

Watch: Jacob Rees-Mogg hits back on prorogation

There were howls of outrage yesterday when Boris Johnson announced that he was calling for a Queen’s Speech on 14 October, and suspending parliament for several weeks beforehand. MPs, Remainer commentators and even the Speaker of the House of Commons chimed in to label the move a ‘constitutional outrage’, and accused the government of politicising

Katy Balls

How Cabinet responded to Boris Johnson’s prorogation plan

When news broke on Wednesday morning that Boris Johnson was planning to prorogue Parliament for five weeks ahead of a new Queen’s Speech, a conference call was hastily scheduled with his Cabinet. By the time it happened, every minister on the call was aware of what the Prime Minister was seeking to propose. The Prime

Steerpike

Will Paul Mason miss his own protest?

Last night, hundreds of people gathered in Parliament Square to vent their fury at Boris Johnson and his decision to prorogue parliament for several weeks in September. The crowd were in a raucous mood, but none were in finer spirits that the left-wing journalist Paul Mason. In a video published online, Mason could be seen (with

Alex Massie

Ruth Davidson’s true enemies have always been in her own party

Ruth Davidson is on the brink of resigning as leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party. As I write this, party sources are making it clear there will be no statement on her future this evening. The absence of an immediate, dismissive, denial, gives greater credence to the suggestion that she will resign soon. Not