Best buys: Five year and over fixed rate mortgages
If you’re looking to buy a property in the near future then this week’s Best Buys – of five year fixed rate mortgages – might be of use.
Latest from Coffee House
All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Tuesday
Doctors cannot be neutral on assisted dying
The Royal College of Physicians will soon begin yet another consultation with its members on the subject of ‘assisted dying’. The college is opposed to legalisation, but a minority are unhappy with this. They know there is no chance of persuading a majority to support such practices. So they are pressing for the college to
What we can learn from the British Army’s help in the fight against Boko Haram
For two decades, violent, extremist organisations have had a devastating impact on the African continent. Attacks by al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Boko Haram, and their splinter group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have displaced millions within and across national borders and decimated vital services, education, healthcare, and businesses. Since 2009, Boko Haram
The Cooper amendment’s failure is a setback for the MPs pushing for a softer Brexit
It’s been a disappointing night for the Remain and soft Brexit factions of parliament. Ahead of the votes on amendments to Theresa May’s Brexit plan, there had been a hope among some that the votes would serve as an opportunity to soften the government’s Brexit position. After the Prime Minister’s deal was voted down by
Theresa May’s Brexit deal has come back from the dead
At long last, something changed in the House of Commons tonight; at long last Theresa May had something that could, with only a little squinting or wishful thinking, be considered something close to a good day. Her deal, the withdrawal agreement backed by her Government and agreed with the EU, that seemed moribund less than
The Brady amendment gives Theresa May the strength to kick the can down the road
You could tell that the result of tonight’s vote on the Brady amendment (which calls for alternative arrangements to replace the Northern Irish backstop) came as a surprise to those at the top of government from the look on Chief Whip Julian Smith’s face as he re-entered the Commons. He looked as though he had
Graham Brady’s Brexit amendment passes in the Commons
Graham Brady’s amendment – that will send Theresa May back to Brussels to renegotiate her Brexit plan – has passed by 16 votes. The amendment, which was put together by the chair of the 1922 committee and was backed by the Government, states that the controversial backstop should be ‘replaced with alternative arrangements to avoid
Caroline Spelman’s Brexit amendment passes
Caroline Spelman’s Brexit amendment – saying that Britain should not leave the EU without a deal – has passed in the Commons tonight. The amendment – which won by 318 votes to 310 – displays Parliamentary opposition to a no deal exit, but it is purely advisory and has no legislative force. This means the amendment
Watch: Nick Boles caught napping in the Chamber
After another long day discussing Brexit in the House of Commons, it was the job of the Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay, to finally close the debate with a rousing speech ahead of the votes on several amendments to the Prime Minister’s motion. Barclay has not exactly, to put it mildly, made a huge impact since he
Jeremy Corbyn’s petty Brexit speech undermined the Labour leader’s claim to be serious
Jeremy Corbyn scolded a Tory MP during his opening speech in the Commons debate on Theresa May’s Brexit Plan B, telling the backbencher that his intervention hadn’t added anything to the seriousness of the occasion. How odd, then, that the way the Labour leader conducted himself throughout his speech also ended up fitting that criticism
Theresa May entertains the idea of backing the Malthouse Compromise
Is the Conservative party finally uniting around a Brexit plan? This afternoon, the Prime Minister had a surprisingly good turn at the despatch box. Opening the debate for tonight’s amendment votes, May explained why she was supporting the Brady amendment calling for an alternative to the backstop – and why she rejected all other amendments.
Remainer wars: Anna Soubry heckles Nicky Morgan
When details emerged late last night that a small group of Conservative MPs had been secretly planning a Brexit compromise (named after Kit Malthouse who helped broker the deal) it was surprising for many to see both Remainers and Leavers within the Tory party working together on it. On one side of the aisle you
Does the Left want us to return to the pre-industrial age? | 29 January 2019
However misguided their ideas, until recently it was safe to assume that those on the Left did at least want to improve the lot of humanity – they wanted the global population to enjoy better health, a better diet and longer lives. They just disagreed with capitalists and free marketeers over how best to achieve
Ex-Labour MP Fiona Onasanya jailed for speeding ticket lie
Shamed former Labour MP Fiona Onasanya has been jailed for lying to police over a speeding ticket. Onasanya compared herself to Jesus after being found guilty of perverting the course of justice last year. But her explanation that she was ‘in good biblical company, along with Joseph, Moses, Daniel and his three Hebrew friends, who were each found
What Labour’s support for Cooper’s Brexit amendment means
Labour is now backing the Cooper amendment. It will whip its MPs to vote for this amendment which would require the Government to request an extension to Article 50 if no agreement can be reached with the EU. The aim of the amendment is to prevent a ‘no deal’ Brexit on March 29th. However, in
Damian Thompson: my sister on fighting cancer with faith
The photo above is of my sister Carmel and me having tea a few days after our mother’s funeral. She looks cheerful, doesn’t she? That’s because she was: although we both missed our mother intensely, and always will, we had done most of our grieving before she died, as we watched her tortured by Parkinson’s
There’s nothing ‘elitist’ about kids following in their parents’ footsteps
Children of doctors are 24 times more likely than their peers to become doctors. Children of lawyers are 17 times more likely to go into law, and children of those in film or television are 12 times more likely to enter these fields. The same pattern is repeated in architecture and in the performing arts. These
The ultimatum that will be given to Theresa May at cabinet today
There will be two more momentous issues discussed at this morning’s cabinet – neither on the PM’s own agenda, but which will be forced on her by recalcitrant colleagues. Yes another two historic decisions. Yawn. One group of ministers – Rudd, Gauke, Clark and conceivably Hammond and Lidington too, inter alia – will warn the
Can the Malthouse Compromise break the Brexit deadlock?
After the European Research Group announced on Monday night that they would not get behind the Brady amendment to replace the backstop with alternative arrangements, it looked as though the grand plan to salvage Theresa May’s deal was on the rocks. Now there is a new proposal doing the rounds which has the backing of
Monday
Why Generation Z is turning away from alcohol
Actress Anne Hathaway grabbed headlines recently with a somewhat unorthodox parenting strategy: she revealed she has given up alcohol until her two-year-old son turns 18 because she does not want him to see her drunk. Hathaway’s approach might seem puritanical to anyone who’s no longer in their twenties, but for Generation Z it’s the new
Davos’s guilty secret
Somehow I had managed more than a quarter of a century in journalism without ever going to Davos. It had become almost a badge of honour, the one gathering of global nabobs I had been able to dodge year after year. But here I am in the mountains of Switzerland, a new boy amid the
Brexit would have been Flashman’s finest hour
With the 50th anniversary of the publication of George MacDonald Fraser’s first Flashman novel, how would Thomas Hughes’ school bully have handled British politics today — and who’s most like our favourite literary cad? Given recent allegations of sexism and bullying in the Commons, Flash would have found himself at home. If Westminster is a boarding school, Flash would
Sadiq Khan is wrong about rent control
Rent control would worsen London’s housing crisis while hurting the poor, immigrants, and minorities. Yet Sadiq Khan wants to make it the central plank of his bid to win re-election as London Mayor. Khan has said the case for rent control is ‘overwhelming’ and that ‘Londoners overwhelmingly want it to happen’. But while some may see rent control
Theresa May has thrown the dice up in the air tonight
I have given up trying to understand Theresa May. I used to think she was the most methodical and risk-averse of politicians. But she has tonight thrown the dice up in the air – or perhaps, to use George Osborne’s analogy, pointed the loaded revolver at herself. Because she is whipping for the Brady amendment
May urges Tory MPs to give her something to battle for
Theresa May has met Tory MPs tonight in a last-ditch effort to try and persuade them to vote for the Brady amendment tomorrow. She said that she would go back to Brussels and push for ‘fundamental changes’ to the backstop. But to do that, she needed to be able to show the EU that parliament
The traditionalist worldview has gone from orthodoxy to punchline to nostalgia to ‘hate’ in a startlingly short space of time
I recently rewatched The Birdcage, Mike Nichols’ pleasing farce of clashing values, a Hollywood adaption of Jean Poiret’s lighter, sharper 1973 play La Cage aux Folles. The son of drag club owner Armand Goldman (a dialled-up Robin Williams) has proposed to the daughter of Republican Senator Kevin Keeley (Gene Hackman, almost camper than Williams) and
May’s deal on rocks as ERG reject backstop plan
When Sir Graham Brady tabled his Brexit amendment asserting that Theresa May’s deal would be palatable if the backstop is replaced with an alternative arrangement, the hope was that enough Conservative MPs would align behind it to show Brussels that – so long as they were prepared to compromise – a deal could pass the
It’s no wonder young people are falling out of love with Corbyn
One of the ironies of contemporary British politics is that many younger voters – some of whom are so opposed to eurosceptic baby boomers that they accuse them of ‘stealing their future’ – are also enamoured with Jeremy Corbyn. The Labour leader is, after all, a eurosceptic baby boomer who some still speculate might have secretly voted Leave
Labour’s Immigration Bill stance shows how much Jeremy Corbyn has changed
A row is brewing in the Commons over Labour’s stance on the Immigration Bill, which has its second reading this evening. The party’s whips told MPs this morning that they would be on a one-line whip for this piece of legislation, with the plan being to abstain on the vote itself. Centrist MPs in particular
Theresa May could soon face her biggest humiliation yet
The Brexiters in and around the Tory European Research Group are now telling me they are minded to vote against the Murrison/Brady amendment – which would mandate the PM to replace the backstop with some other unspecified arrangement to avert a hard border on the island of Ireland. Why? Well one of them told me
Watch: Jeremy Corbyn’s miserable Monday morning
Did Jeremy Corbyn get out of the wrong side of bed this morning? Mr S. only asks because the Labour leader was somewhat short of words when he was asked whether his party would or wouldn’t be backing Yvette Cooper’s key Brexit amendment in the Commons tomorrow. Here’s how he greeted a BBC journalist who
Why this week could end in more Brexit deadlock
On paper, this week ought to be a decisive one for the government’s Brexit position. After Theresa May’s Brexit deal was voted down by 230 votes, MPs now have the chance to vote on their own amendments to that deal. The majority are non-binding – but they do carry political weight – while a handful
It would be a mistake for the ERG to not back the Brady amendment
Bernard Jenkin has just told ITV’s Romilly Weeks that he won’t currently be voting for the Brady amendment. This suggests that the amendment won’t have the numbers as a large chunk of the ERG won’t vote for it. Even from an ERG perspective, this is—to my mind—a tactical mistake. If the Brady amendment doesn’t get
The liberal case for Brexit
Anyone for Whexit? I voted Remain. The theoretical arguments seemed finely balanced, so boring old pragmatism decided it. On the one hand I feel vindicated by the current shambles. But on the other hand, oddly enough, I have become more conscious of the case for leaving. And if we really are leaving it seems worthwhile to accentuate