Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
Nick Clegg is finally doing the clever thing and openly talking about backing the Tories in coalition. I’m in a BBC studio waiting to do News24 paper review, and just have the FT’s front page. But it quotes him saying that he: “…could back a minority Tory government if David Cameron proposes genuine ‘liberal’ reforms.” Now,
For some time I have been waiting for Digby Jones to return to his good old unpredictable self. It’s happening in tomorrow’s FT where Labour’s trade minister says Darling’s copycat clampdown on non doms will cost Britain. Jones suggests that the non-dom rules have caused people to ask “does this mean you don’t want us?” He
I never nod in agreement more with any piece than with Charles Moore’s diary, and in today’s edition of the magazine he says Derek Conway: “…exclaims that ‘An MP is paid less than a sous-chef in the Commons’ as if this were a self-evident absurdity… he wants what he sees as the befitting lifestyle and
Gordon Brown will now be regretting briefing this morning that he was going to meet John McCain. The senator has pulled out (he could take the Vietcong, says Iain Martin, but not an hour with Brown). His (cancelled) destination was Germany but it does make you wonder how seriously John McCain takes the UK-US special
When they didn’t mention MPs expenses last week, it was odd. This time it was downright embarrassing – and adds to the impression that they all have something to hide. Which, of course, they all do. First thing’s first: Ed Miliband seems to have a new job. He now sits next to Brown making theatrical
The spending debate continues with Philip Hammond over at ConservativeHome defending his decision to sign up to Brown’s current spending plan. The 2% total ain’t that much, he says, slower than economic growth in fact. Therefore Brown is (magic phrase) “sharing the proceeds of growth” like he would. He’s right, Brown’s spending is the tightest
Cameron may have moved first, but Brown has now upped the ante, writing to the Speaker calling for a “root and branch overhaul of the current system”. He has told “all Labour MPs” (not just frontbenchers like the Tories) thay must “abide, not by April but as soon as possible, with the Committee on Standards
Danny Finkelstein does me the honour of Fisking my post on Tories and spending. I’m being a little bit mischievous, he suggests, by claiming the Tories didn’t offer tax cuts in 01 and 05. And I link to media reports, he says, not original documents. This is a huge debate, as future policy is based
This time it’s Caroline Flint who has been wheeled out to get tough on welfare claimants. But this sentence in her interview in The Guardian jumped out at me. “She admitted she was surprised by figures showing that more than half of those of working age living in social housing are without paid work –
William Rees-Mogg yesterday added his voice to the many suggesting that, now the economic outlook has changed, so should the Tories’ daft proposal to match Gordon Brown’s spending pledges. Iain Martin, Iain Dale and my good self are just a few who argue that now Brown has been found out, the Tories should think twice about
At last, some life in the Lisbon Treaty debate – and from the least likely party. All LibDem MPs stood on a manifesto pledge to hold a referendum on the EU Constitution and quite a few (perhaps as many as half) believe they should not break this trust with the voters as Labour has done.
What I love about the Derek Conway’s je ne regrette rien in the Mail on Sunday is the way he gives clues as to where the other bodies are buried. “I know many MPs with family members who have different names registered so that they are not so obviously spotted. Some spouses work under maiden
Lieutenant George: Look what I got for you sir. Captain Blackadder: What? Lieutenant George: It’s the latest issue of “King & Country”. Oh, damn inspiring stuff; the magazine that tells the Tommies the truth about the war. Captain Blackadder: Or alternatively, the greatest work of fiction since vows of fidelity were included in the French
What started off as a joke is growing more serious by the hour. Bets are being laid on the next EU president and the favourite is one Anthony Charles Lynton Blair. Ladbrokes has cut him from 3/1 to 2/1, perhaps after the Guardian piece this morning. Put aside the (rich) comic value of all this,
Francis Urquhart will be spinning in his fictional grave. Once Tory whips were the MI5 of the Commons. They put a bit of stick about, knew every skeleton in every closet – and provided the best early-warning to the leadership. So Cameron should have been warned about the full horrors of the Conway crisis months
There’s an old joke that the word “lies” is banned in the House of Commons because it would be used so often that you’d get no business done. The actual reason is that MPs (hilariously) judge themselves above telling untruths. Yet we do hear rather shameless porkies at PMQs. And Tiberius makes a point: why don’t
The best part of PMQs came just after it ended, in the form of an irate Boris Johnson. “I am sure the Prime Minister inadvertently misled the House when he said I want to cut spending on the Metropolitan Police”…. Brown was walking out the door, to Tory roars. “I’m the only one who has
Ladbrokes has cut Hillary’s odds, but she’s still in the lead. McCain now cut from 4/5 to 1/5 to win GOP nomination. For all the odds – and expert analysis – head to Americano.
After saying he wouldn’t withdraw the whip from Derek Conway last night, Cameron has finally performed the U-Turn and done so now. Good. A night of dithering is better than a decade of it. So all eyes now on Old Bexley & Sidcup Conservative Association (a rather bashful lot, judging by their photo gallery) –
We know that Team Cameron are keen readers of CoffeeHouse – and if so, our comment board has some free advice for them. Sack Conway. Remove the whip. De-select him. Give him the Howard Flight treatment. Flog him to the LibDems. His “unreserved” apology was for “administrative oversight”. As Quentin Letts says, is that what