A lovely catch and telling observation from Iain Martin* on how the Prime Minister’s speech to the Labour party conference was put together and how this exhausted government is, essentially, a real-life satire: My favourite [part of The Thick of It] is the episode in which, after a Prime Ministerial resignation, increasingly frantic meetings go
Fraser says there’s plenty to fight for on the Great European Question and, in many ways, I’m sure he’s right. But what is Tory policy in the event that Lisbon is ratified before the election? That may be a hypothetical, but it’s not an unreasonable one. It deserves a clear answer. I’m struck too by
Yes, that would be Steve Earle’s boy and yes he’s named after the great Townes van Zandt. One of the things I like about country music is it that, in the end, it’s all one big family. Granted, a family that sings about heartbreak and loss and the endless miseries of life quite a lot,
Did you know that the problem with the Bible is that it is, frankly, a book for liberal surrender-monkeys? Apparently so. Hence the urgent need for a new, properly conservative translation. Let’s hear it for the Conservative Bible Project. Apparently, As of 2009, there is no fully conservative translation of the Bible which satisfies the
I confess that until recently I had never heard of Mary Seacole. But, like Boris Johnson, who found himself in this position a few years ago, that reflects poorly on me, not on the redoubtable Seacole. Brother Liddle says that her inclusion upon new lists of eminent Victorians can only be explained “solely and utterly
Sometimes you have to pity Literary Editors. Or, to put it another way, one of life’s small pleasures is seeing how newspapers review books written by their own proprietors. I always thought the Telegraph should just have asked Conrad Black to review his own books and like to think that he’d have done it well.
It had been expected – according to press reports admittedly – that Aberdeenshire Council would lift the threat of compulsory purchase orders being used to evict four families from their homes to pacify Donald Trump’s demand for yet more land for his golf course development on the Menie Estate, near Aberdeen. Well, so much for
Photo: Max Nash/AFP/Getty Images Brother Liddle says that Jon Cruddas is the only one of Gordon Brown’s potential successors that gives him any great hope for the future of the Labour party. And given the competition that may not be so very surprising. But if the party conference this week has proved anything, it’s that
The press really is beastly, isn’t it? According to Jonathan Freedland, The media’s conviction that Labour, and Gordon Brown in particular, are doomed has grown so intense that it has turned into a kind of sneering disdain for the government, casting aside all conventions of respect for those holding elected office… You don’t have to
Was Rory Stewart, Harvard Professor, author of The Places In Between and prospective Conservative parliamentary candidate for the Bracknell constituency, an MI6 officer? Former-ambassador-turned-conspiracist Craig Murray says he was: One person I would not vote for is the crusading neo-Conservative Rory Stewart. It is particularly annoying that he is constantly referred to as a former
Gordon Brown is an intelligent man but I’ve always thought him a better tactician than strategist. His speech to the Labour party conference yesterday confirmed that view and, indeed, strengthened it. Consider this passage from Jonathan Freedland’s column today: The Brownites always loathed Blair’s “respect agenda”, regarding anti-social behaviour orders as dismal and sacking Blair’s
Director Roman Polanski attends Che Tempo Che Fa TV Show held at RAI Studios on November 23, 2008 in MIlan. Photo: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images. So, what about Roman Polanski, eh? Let me suggest that you can a) acknowledge that his arrest is scarcely an urgent priority, that b) there are questions to be asked
Remiss of me not to note that this photograph of the Obamas and the Zapateros has caused quite a stir in Spain. That’s because the Spanish people were not generally aware that the Prime Minister’s daughters, Laura and Alba*, are goths. There’s a law that protects their privacy, you see and so, until the State
Gordon Brown’s speech to the Labour party conference this afternoon was, in its way, breathtaking. Breathtakingly shameless, mendacious, confused, contradictory, delusional, dishonest and irresponsible that is. It was also the speech of a Prime Minister resigned to defeat. Elections are won in the centre, not on the extremes. But Gordon’s speech was designed to appeal
Of course, in the movies Gordon wasn’t merely alive, but on his way to a memorable victory. Politics may not be so kind to our hero. But, since this may be his last conference speech as Prime Minister and leader of the Labour party it seems appropriate to mark the occasion by sitting in the
Fraser says that the Labour conference in Brighton is like an Irish wake: People are happy to see each other, but sad at the circumstances of the gathering. Shouldn’t that be the other way round? At least you know what you’re supposed to feel at a funeral; there’s none of the bittersweet sensation that can
The case of Leanne Shepherd and Lucy Jarrett – the job-sharing police constables whose child-minding arrangements have become a matter of some controversy* – rightly enrages all sensible folk. To recap: the two women are best friends and share a job, each working 20 hours a week. Their husbands, also policemen, work irregular shifts. Their
Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images Good news, Palin fans: her memoir has beaten its deadline and will now be available in November! So you won’t have to wait until spring to read Going Rogue: An American Life. That’s an interesting title: perfect, absurd and perhaps a little bit revealing. Not the American Life bit since just
Charlotte Gore is entirely correct: Lib Dems have one killer policy: Set the threshold for Income Tax and National Insurance contributions at £10,000 a year (or roughly minimum wage). It’s so good Labour activists want their party to steal it. I wouldn’t be surprised if similar pressure is being put on David Cameron to do
Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images. Fraser makes a number of excellent points in his latest post on the BNP and I also agree that Jack Straw is not a great choice to debate Nick Griffin. Straw is too self-righteous for the job and, despite his lefty past, neither the bruiser he thinks he is, nor possessed