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Friday

Steerpike

David Cameron cheers Osborne from the Whole Foods aisles

Today George Osborne has managed to get MPs and hacks alike in a spin over his appointment as the new Evening Standard editor. Giving an interview to the BBC at the paper’s headquarters in High Street Kensington, Osborne said he could see no issues balancing the role of MP with editor as he can do one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. As Osborne celebrated his new job, it turns out his old colleague David Cameron was just around the corner — getting the weekly shop in at High Street Kensington Whole Foods. When an eagle-eyed hack spied the former prime minister browsing the ribs, they asked

Steerpike Steerpike

MP for Tatton takes up part-time job as… Evening Standard editor

Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Freddy Gray grapple with Osborne’s shock appointment: In recent months, Mr S has kept readers up to date with the multiple jobs (and large salaries) George Osborne has taken up since returning to the back bench. Just last week, the former chancellor used Budget day to sneak out the news that he would be earning an extra £650,000 per annum in his part-time role as an advisor to BlackRock. However, Osborne’s latest job takes the biscuit. Osborne has been announced as the new editor of the Evening Standard. Former Independent editor — and Lebedev sidekick — Amol Rajan managed to somehow bag the exclusive: 1/ EXCLUSIVE: @George_Osborne

Thursday

Steerpike

Government’s ‘plan for Britain’ isn’t working

Theresa May’s omnishambles of a week is showing no signs of improvement. As the Budget U-turn and expenses probe play out, many have been left asking: is this a government that is ready for Brexit? But fear not — they have a plan. In fact, Theresa May has even had a website built so she can share her ‘Plan for Britain’ with the nation. Only there’s a snag. The website isn’t working. On the day of its launch, it’s down as a result of technical issues. Visitors to the page are told that it ‘isn’t working’ — much like Theresa’s government at the moment.

Steerpike Steerpike

Watch: Tory chairman loses his temper over election spending row

Oh dear. It’s not turning out to be the best week for the conservatives. On top of an embarrassing omNICshamble U-turn, Theresa May is on a sticky wicket over ‘IndyRef2’ and now the Conservatives have been fined £70,000 by the Electoral Commission — for failing to declare a total of £275,813 in campaign spending in the general election. With criminal charges now being considered across 12 police force areas over claims of expenses fraud by the Tories, perhaps it’s understandable that Patrick McLoughlin — the party chairman — wasn’t in a chatty mood when he bumped into Sky’s Darren McCaffrey. Alas, McLoughlin struggled to control his temper on facing questions — resulting

Steerpike Steerpike

The Queen backs Brexit

Champers at the ready. After much speculation last year over Her Majesty’s feelings towards the EU, the verdict is finally in: the Queen backs Brexit. Her Majesty has given Royal Assent to the government’s Brexit Bill — thereby making it an Act of Parliament. Theresa May now has permission to trigger the UK’s exit from the EU at a time of her choosing. The news has been met by celebrations in the Commons: Here's the moment the Commons learns the Brexit bill has become law pic.twitter.com/SWIz4oecR6 — BBC Parliament (@BBCParliament) March 16, 2017 However, over in the Lords it’s a more muted affair: And here's the moment the Lords hear the

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Europe’s politicians rightly feel extinction breathing down their necks

Allahu Akbar! Greetings from Samsun, where Turkish protestors — their eyeballs spinning in orgasmic Islamic rage — tried to set fire to the Dutch flag while chanting the usual ‘Allah’s dead good’ stuff. They used cigarette lighters and some lighter fuel and up it went — and was then jubilantly trampled on by the inflamed, howling masses. Except that it wasn’t the Dutch flag — they had got hold of the French flag by mistake. I wonder if any of the similarly inflamed Turkish protestors in the Netherlands would have noticed? My guess is most of those demonstrating in Rotterdam had spent their entire lives in the Netherlands, but possibly

Wednesday

Steerpike

Laura Kuenssberg to the rescue

As the government’s omNICshambles unravelled further today with a u-turn from the Chancellor, many have been left wondering why no-one spotted the problem sooner — with the manifesto breach managing to get past brains at both No 10 and No 11. Today in the chamber, Philip Hammond credited none other than Laura Kuenssberg, the BBC’s political editor, with notifying him first of the problem with the pledge: ‘Who first raised the issue of the manifesto? Well, credit where credit is due I think it was actually Laura Kuenssberg on the BBC shortly after I said it in the Budget speech.’ With the SNP’s Alex Salmond later calling on Hammond to give Kuenssberg a

Steerpike Steerpike

Welsh secretary accidentally ‘unsacks’ Michael Heseltine

It’s not turning out to be a great day for the government. After announcing a u-turn on the NICs rise in last week’s Budget, Philip Hammond has spent the afternoon having to face down angry MPs in the Chamber. Now it turns out that a ‘clerical error’ has meant Michael Heseltine has been temporarily ‘unsacked’ from his post as a government advisor. After the government sacked the Tory grandee last week over his Lords rebellion on Article 50, many were surprised today to receive a letter from the Welsh Secretary declaring that he was counting on the ‘expertise of Lord Heseltine’ for the upcoming City Deal for the Swansea Bay

Katy Balls Katy Balls

Hammond tries and fails to explain himself

This time last week, Philip Hammond stood in the Chamber and made a joke about how the last Chancellor to proclaim they would deliver the last Spring Budget had been sacked 10 weeks later. Little did he then know that just seven days later he would have to face down angry MPs questioning his future — as he appeared in the House to explain the government’s NICs U-turn. Flanked by Theresa May and David Gauke, Hammond was met with heckles as he said the government had come to the conclusion that while the national insurance class 4 rise is compatible with the tax lock legislation, it ‘does not meet a wider understanding of the spirit of that commitment’.

The Spectator

If the Tories can mess up a Budget, how will they handle Brexit?

After Philip Hammond delivered his Budget last week, he went to speak to a meeting of Conservative backbench MPs. Several were deeply alarmed about his tearing up of their manifesto pledge not to raise National Insurance. One asked him how sure he was about all this. Might they find themselves going out to defend this tax rise to their constituents, only to find him abandoning the policy later? No, the Chancellor replied, he would not change his mind. This tax rise was centrepiece of Budget, so could not be scrapped. He was not for turning. For a Chancellor to abandon his main Budget policy within a week is nothing more

Friday

Douglas Murray

James O’Brien spreading ‘fake news’ via the BBC is a must-watch

The row about ‘fake news’ and the ‘crooked media’ appears to be ongoing.  And every time the BBC and other mainstream media mention it they present themselves solely as the victims of such phenomena.  So let us turn to just one edition of the BBC’s Newsnight. On Wednesday of this week the programme was presented by James O’Brien.  Now in the first place Mr O’Brien is a strange choice to present this programme.  Not just because his awkward, cut-out, Lego man gait makes it obvious why he has made his career in radio, but because he is the sort of hyper-partisan figure who, if they came from the opposite political

Thursday

Ed West

Star Wars is the perfect analogy for the decline of America

Star Wars is a generational thing and older people think my cohort are mentally subnormal for enjoying it, but it’s been such a part of my childhood that I’m prepared to just set aside that voice in my head telling me it’s nonsense. So I was sad when I came out of the cinema earlier this week, having watched the best Star Wars film in at least 36 years, to hear that Carrie Fisher had died. Rogue One is an interesting example of my theory of Ottomanism. In the most recent Star Wars films the human rebels have been overtly multiracial while the baddies are almost to a man of

Lara Prendergast Lara Prendergast

Jeremy Corbyn must be delighted by Simon Danczuk’s suspension from Labour

Simon Danczuk’s lightning-fast suspension from Labour – as they investigate whether he sent ‘lewd’ texts to a seventeen-year-old girl – is an embarrassing note to end the year on. Especially for an MP like Danczuk who has spent much of the last few years positioning himself as a campaigner against child abuse. He has described today’s story in the Sun as being ‘not entirely accurate’ but has suggested that his behaviour ‘was inappropriate’. ‘I was stupid and there’s no fool like an old fool’ he said via Twitter. My behaviour was inappropriate & I apologise unreservedly to everyone I've let down. I was stupid & there's no fool like an old fool — Simon Danczuk (@SimonDanczuk) December 31, 2015

Tuesday

Andrew Sabisky

The education Green Paper is surprisingly bold

Yesterday afternoon the government released a new Green Paper which focussed on its initial proposals for expanding the number of high-quality school places throughout both the primary and secondary sectors. This task is particularly urgent given the existence of a demographic bulge currently passing through the primary year groups. The proposed reforms are united by an overarching theme, which is a desire to provide a higher-quality education for the children of those parents who are ‘just about managing’ (a phrase the document frequently returns to), and whose earnings are just above the free school meals cut-off (around £16,190). The paper tackles the problem of how best to meet the needs of this group

Thursday

Andrew Sabisky

Do ‘tutor-proof’ grammar school tests exist?

As part of its plan to expand the number of grammar schools, the Government has proposed making ‘tutor-proof’ tests. Unfortunately, this is more difficult to accomplish than Theresa May imagines and even if it were realistic, it might not solve the problem of under-representation of poor children in grammar schools. It’s possible to make this argument thanks to the large amount of scientific literature on the effects of practice and coaching on cognitive test performance. This is based on the popularity of such tests in job and educational selection over the decades and the results are both clear and consistent. Practice and coaching do have positive effects. What’s more, coaching has an effect over and above

Thursday

Lara Prendergast

Why are feminists refusing to discuss the Cologne sex attacks?

Regardless of the background of the men who carried out the attacks in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, it is a pretty horrific story. A series of sexual attacks took place in the city centre by a group of around 1,000 men. More than 150 women have filed criminal complaints, three-quarters of them for sexual assault. Two cases of rape have been reported. It is the kind of story that should make headlines – and should provide ample fodder for writers who like to tackle feminist topics head on. After all, surely this is the very definition of ‘rape culture’? And if the actual attacks aren’t enough to merit a reaction, then how about

Tuesday

Lara Prendergast

Not all Uber drivers are Islamists, just like not all London cabbies are John Worboys

Uber aren’t going to be thrilled to hear that Muhaydin Mire, the man who has been arrested on suspicion of knifing a man at Leytonstone station, while shouting ‘This is for Syria’, was reportedly one of their drivers. On social media, London cabbies have already started to capitalise on this, by making the case that you’re better off sticking with them if you want to avoid catching a ride with a jihadi. A new hashtag is currently doing the rounds: #HeWasAnUberDriverBruv – and the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association has been quick to adopt it, while also wondering how many more ‘TFL licensed terrorists’ are out there. While the tweet has now been deleted, it originally

Wednesday

Lara Prendergast

Yes, we wear poppies. But we don’t print our faces onto them

‘What’s worse: people who add French flags to their Facebook profiles, or those who sneer at them?’ asks my colleague Isabel Hardman on Coffee House today. ‘Haven’t we always offered small gestures to commemorate sad events? Or to show respect? Why do we buy poppies in November, and feel under-dressed without them?’ In some ways, I agree with Isabel – it is normal to want to show respect, and to feel an emotional response to such serious events. What troubles me about the profile picture change is not so much the act – had the option been to change your profile picture simply to a Tricolore, without your face behind it,

Thursday

Lara Prendergast

Yet another tragedy in the Mediterranean. Here’s an actual rescue plan

Another week, another appalling boat disaster in the Mediterranean, another round of the same tired row on migration. Yesterday a boat carrying 600 people sank off the coast of Libya; 400 people were rescued, the rest are feared dead, trapped in the belly of the boat. This morning the same round of cliches are being trotted out. The pro-immigration lobby says our restrictive policies are cruel. The anti-immigration brigade say we must not encourage masses of people to come. But the migrant crisis is too great for such shallow responses. In this week’s Spectator, Paul Collier says that this ‘lazy thinking’ gets us nowhere. He has an alternative, and it involves more than

Monday

Nick Cohen

Tim Farron is a reminder of what it actually means to be liberal

The media complain about ‘career politicians’. Yet when politicians come along who aren’t Oxford PPEists, who have progressed via think tanks and spadships to safe seats without their feet touching the ground, journalists are shocked by their failure to conform to contemporary mores. We want politicians to be different, it seems, as long as they stay the same. Tim Farron is that rarity in modern life: a senior politician from the north of England. The north has become the British equivalent of America’s flyover states, lost in the no-man’s land between the centres of real power in London and Edinburgh. Farron did not leave it until he came to Westminster.