All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
The leaders played austerity tug-of-war at PMQs today. Is it over yet? Yes it is, said Theresa May. Not for years, said Jeremy Corbyn. Back and forth they went. Eventually they’d swung around 180 degrees and swapped positions. Corbyn seemed to want more austerity. May seemed thrilled that it was finished – a policy that
It’s not been an easy month for Speaker John Bercow. Dogged by allegations of bullying and intolerant behaviour, he’s so far only managed to cling on to his job by promising to resign in the summer of 2019. Yet his imminent departure from political life has not stopped the indefatigable Speaker from giving his own
The announcement in this week’s Budget that Australians (as well as those from the US, Canada, Japan and New Zealand) will have access to e-passport gates when entering the UK is a welcome sign that Britain is serious about going global. The million or so Australians who visit each year are sure to be delighted
Peter Bone has previously said Philip Hammond needs ‘slapping down’ over his plan for Brexit, but the Chancellor’s Budget this week seems to have made Bone change his mind about his party colleague. The Tory backbencher said he had always thought that Hammond was a ‘bit iffy about Brexit’. ‘How wrong I was’, he said.
Kanye West’s association with Donald Trump is well known. But there is another politician that the rapper-turned-political-activist likes to pay attention to this side of the pond: Caroline Lucas. While Kanye has nearly 30 million followers on Twitter, the list of those he follows is far more exclusive – numbering just 120. So imagine Mr
William Sitwell, the writer and food critic made famous by Masterchef, has quit as editor of Waitrose’s food magazine following the backlash against his response to a vegan journalist. When Selene Nelson wrote to Sitwell to pitch a series of ‘plant-based’ recipes, he replied with another idea: “How about a series on killing vegans, one by one.
As James Kirkup writes on Coffee House, David Cameron’s misreading of Angela Merkel contributed to Brexit. The then Prime Minister and his team believed that Cameron’s personal relationship with Merkel – who apparently saw him as a ‘naughty nephew’ – would be enough to secure some important compromises in the renegotiation. Those compromises never came but Mr S
Most people were scandalised by John McDonnell’s proposal to promote a four-day working week. But before we get incensed about giving people more leisure during their working life, we need to ask another question. If it really is so vital to the economy that people spend more time at work, then why does the government
Although Philip Hammond’s spending splurge Budget has received broadly positive front pages and a cautious thumbs up from the public, the Chancellor has been given a reality check by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). After crunching the numbers, IFS director Paul Johnson has concluded that Hammond had ‘gambled’ on the public finances. Johnson said
In recent years, George Osborne has attempted to rebrand himself. Once known as the austere chancellor, the Evening Standard editor is keen to be depicted these days as a liberal progressive – who has more in common with Emmanuel Macron than Boris Johnson. The problem is that many of those who regard themselves as progressive
Brexiteers are occasionally depicted as being a little paranoid. If you listen to some elite critics of Brexit, you would think that a sizeable chunk of those who voted to Leave are sharing dodgy anti-George Soros memes long into the night. You might think, too, that a few Brexit voters see elite stitch-ups everywhere and never
Yvette Cooper got more than she bargained for when she had a go at immigration minister Caroline Nokes at today’s home affairs committee. The Labour MP rebuked Nokes after she complained about the meeting overrunning, telling her: You have been incredibly generous with your time and we really appreciate it. I would also say, however, we have
The growth forecasts might be too optimistic. The economy may yet turn down, the pressure on public services will only continue to rise, and, most of all, leaving the European Union may yet turn into a catastrophe. The Institute for Fiscal Studies did not waste much time in branding yesterday’s Budget ‘a bit of a
I’m afraid that try as I might, I cannot be excited by Philip Hammond’s budget any more than he seemed excited to deliver it. How could it be otherwise when this is, in almost every respect, a make-up and make-do budget that is, in any case, held hostage to fortune? For understandable reasons, the Treasury
How much did Philip Hammond’s giveaway Budget help dying town centres? Not enough, say campaigners, but let’s give the Chancellor some credit. A one-third relief in business rates for retail properties with a rateable value of less than £51,000 means an annual saving of up to £8,000 for a huge number of small businesses; pubs
Last night was the Spectator’s ‘Deal or No Deal’ event, where six panellists convened to discuss all things Brexit, and say whether they thought Britain would ‘crash out’ of the EU or thrive on WTO terms. Nobly representing the Remain side was parliamentary titan, and Father of the House, Ken Clarke. And while Ken was
How far the mighty have fallen. While he was once known as the decisive fixer, who was able to get things done inside Labour, deputy leader Tom Watson has largely been sidelined by the Corbyn crew. Rumour has it that the MP is now so sick of being the perennial outsider, he is even considering other
Oh dear. John McDonnell has found himself in hot water this morning after he declared that Labour would support Philip Hammond’s budget tax cuts. Given that the Resolution Foundation claims that the tax cuts will benefit the better off, it doesn’t seem like the most obvious move for anti-austerity Labour. Labour politicians have been quick to
IN ASSOCIATION WITH Given the United Kingdom’s forthcoming departure from the European Union, few of us who follow the Chancellor’s Budget announcement closely were expecting 2018’s offering to be anything other than cautious, and so it came as little surprise that, once again, Philip Hammond has steered away from making any grand gestures. The unconventional
This week on the Spectator USA Life ’n’ Arts podcast, I’m casting the pod with Matthew Hennessey. He’s an editor at the Wall Street Journal, and also the author of Zero Hour for Gen X: How the Last Adult Generation Can Save America from the Millennials (Encounter Books). It’s a fascinating read: part-political obituary of
When Theresa May announced at this year’s Tory conference that she would put an end to austerity, it’s safe to say that her Chancellor hardly looked thrilled as he clapped from the front row of the hall. Philip Hammond is regarded as a fiscal hawk and rather averse to loosening the purse strings. At today’s
One of the joys of Budget analysis is looking for the unexploded bombs, the measures that could – to use the traditional verb – unravel and cause the Chancellor future torment. I’m not claiming to have spotted a confirmed UXB here, but there are several signs in the Budget papers that suggest that the changes to Universal
As Nick Clegg, George HW Bush and many other politicians have proved to their cost, manifesto promises matter. How damaging, then, will Philip Hammond’s brazen abandonment of the 2017 Conservative pledge be, whereby financial discipline was supposed to ‘guide us to a balanced budget by the middle of next decade’? Now, Hammond seems to be
Mr Deputy Speaker, Today, I present to the House a Budget for Britain’s future; A budget that shows the perseverance of the British people finally paying off. A Budget for hard working families, who live their lives far from this place and care little for the twists and turns of Westminster politics. People who get up early in the morning to open
Philip Hammond held the Budget today to avoid a bunch of Halloween jokes about a zombie economy and so on. To compensate, the Chancellor brought a bunch of random sentences in fancy dress as ‘jokes’. There were inexplicable quips about poaching rabbits, a medley of toilet puns accompanying funding for keeping public conveniences open, and
Poor old Philip Hammond. In a bid to raise some laughs during his Budget announcement, the Chancellor made a series of gags that fell somewhat flat in the Commons. But there was one big laugh in the chamber. Unfortunately for Hammond, though, it came after he made a reference to his budget next year. ‘You
Ever keen to show that there’s a man lurking behind the Spreadsheet, Chancellor Philip Hammond usually uses his Budget speech to crack a few jokes, and try to convince the country he possesses a sense of humour. This year was no exception, but whether he managed to achieve anything close to comedy, Mr S will
It is impossible to overstate Angela Merkel’s significance, to Germany, to the EU, and to Britain. Others are better qualified than me to talk about the first two of those, but as she announces her (slow, deliberate) departure from office, I offer a thought about Merkel and Britain, which is that the modern history of Britain’s
Brexit overshadows this Budget. The story this morning has all been about Number 10 saying that the Budget won’t change in the event of no deal, in apparent contradiction of what Philip Hammond said yesterday. In truth, no deal would—obviously—have consequences for the public finances but the government’s initial reaction would be to try and
“May Day, May Day. We are sinking.” “This is the German Coast Guard. What are you thinking?” This advert for Berlitz, the language school, is a good metaphor for German politics and the decline of Angela Merkel. After this weekend’s election blow in Hesse, where support for her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party fell by
If anyone is wondering who is No 10’s least favourite MP today, Mr Steerpike’s money is firmly on former education minister Justine Greening. The Remainer MP has been a thorn in Theresa May’s side as of late, but she ramped up the disloyalty this Budget day, when she told told ITV’s Good Morning that she
Philip Hammond has delivered his final Budget before Brexit. The Chancellor said that the era of austerity is coming to an end as he pledged extra cash for no deal preparations and slapped a digital services tax on tech giants such as Facebook and Google. He also revealed that the OBR has upped its growth
‘Once is an accident,’ wrote Ian Fleming in Goldfinger, ‘Twice is a coincidence. Three times is an enemy action.’ That Cesar Sayoc, the Chippendale with a bomb in his pocket, mailed his pipe bombs to leading Democrats is no accident. That Robert Bowers, his paranoia fanned by online incitement, decided to massacre Jews at Philadelphia’s Tree of Life synagogue is
Budget day is upon us and it’s safe to say that expectations have been set rather low when it comes to Philip Hammond’s big moment. The Chancellor has said he plans to remain a fiscal hawk – and warned that there will be a brand new Budget in the new year should a ‘no deal’