Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
Without George Osborne, we’d probably be living under Prime Minister Ed Miliband right now. His value to the government goes far beyond his brief as Chancellor; he is across most departments most of the time. But as Chancellor, he is judged by the success (or otherwise) of his Budgets – which is why he is
The Spectator’s 32nd Parliamentarian of the Year awards, sponsored by Benenden, took place at the Savoy Hotel this afternoon. Here are the winners – and a few extracts from my speech. The awards were presented by Alex Salmond. The winners’ speeches, and my spiel, are below: 1. Speech of the year – Johnny Mercer Our winner is a
Last week’s tax credit debacle has highlighted how even well-informed people believe that the £9 minimum wage (misleadingly dubbed ‘living wage’ by the government) is a progressive measure that will help the poorest the most. The low-paid are being hit by tax credit cuts, it’s argued, but don’t worry, soon they’ll get a £9 minimum wage!
With a gossamer Tory majority in the Commons and no majority at all in the Lords, confrontation between the two chambers was always inevitable. Tonight’s defeat over tax credits will be the first of many. But it would be a great error for the Conservative government to choose this as the issue over which to go to
As the House of Lords prepares to debate the tax credit cuts, a significant new piece of information has come to light. The government initially suggested that, in the vast majority of cases, its minimum wage increase and higher tax allowance would compensate for tax credit removal. A bold claim based on not very much research. Coffee House
I suspect that Mark Carney set out to strengthen the case for Britain staying in the European Union with his remarks in Oxford tonight, but his intervention may end up having the reverse effect. First, the Bank of England governor did not talk about the advantages of staying inside the EU. He spoke about the
A few weeks ago, the Dalai Lama gave an interview to The Spectator where he summed up what he regarded as David Cameron’s policy of not seeing him again, so as to not upset his new friends in Beijing. ‘Money, money, money,’ he said. ‘That’s what this is about. Where is morality?’ A powerful point – and
At the SNP conference the First Minister and her deputy, John Swinney, both had precisely the same thing to say about university. Here’s Swinney: “Students from a poorer background have never had a better chance of a place at university than under the SNP”. And Nicola Sturgeon: “More students from poorer backgrounds are now going to
Another milestone has been reached in the recovery: 73.6pc of working-aged British people are now in employment (see above) – the highest in recorded history. And, needless to say, the highest of any country in Europe. What kind of jobs? Mainly full-time employees (up 2.1pc) not self-employment (down 0.6pc). The total number of hours worked is also up,
After the chaotic launch of the Britain Stronger in Europe campaign (didn’t they work out that having the acronym BSE is not a good idea?) the Scottish National Party has made its mind up: it’ll stay well clear of this. John Swinney, the SNP Deputy First Minister, has just been on BBC Radio Scotland laying
Can a Conservative be ‘progressive’? In my Telegraph column last week, I argued that David Cameron is halfway to being one of the most progressive Prime Ministers in recent British history – and published a few graphs to make my case. This went down pretty badly with some CoffeeHousers, who said that I was applauding
Would Scotland be better if government was run from Edinburgh rather than London? This is the SNP’s central proposition, but it’s not hypothetical. For 16 years now, public services have been run from Edinburgh – and so, if Nicola Sturgeon’s premise is correct, Scotland’s schools and hospitals should be pulling ahead of England’s under superior
‘Britain and Twitter are not the same thing’ said David Cameron this week – eight words that summed up the difference between the two parties. One has disappeared down a rabbit hole of social media, convinced that Britain is becoming more unequal and that the poorest have been suffering the most. The other, the Tories, are hard at work
What on earth is Theresa May playing at? As Home Secretary she vowed to cut net immigration down to the ‘tens of thousands,’ only to see it increase to a record high of 330,000. A bit embarrassing: the slogans that used to adorn Tory conferences boasting ‘immigration down’ have been quietly removed, and replied by
‘Were we right to stop a massacre? Yes, we absolutely were,’ said David Cameron on his Radio 4 Today programme interview. But the real question is different: were we right to depose Gaddafi, given the chaos (and bloodshed) that has followed in Libya? Are things so much better for the citizens of Benghazi (and the 80,000 souls
‘That sounded so much better in my head,’ said Rachel from Friends in Series 2. I suspect Jeremy Hunt is now thinking the same. He meant to say that British workers need to improve their productivity, and be weaned off work subsidies. But instead, it came out like: ‘We have to proceed with these tax
Andrew Adonis has not defected to the Conservatives but, as he’ll know, it will look an awful lot like he has. As tomorrow’s newspapers reveal, Lord Adonis is to give up the Labour whip to become a crossbench peer in order to chair a new National Infrastructure Commission. To allow this announcement to be made
The waiting is over – the next volume of Charles Moore’s biography of Margaret Thatcher has, at last, been published. It follows the central, triumphal years of her premiership, from the Falklands to the 1987 election. Some of it has been serialised in the Sunday Telegraph today, with more in the Telegraph tomorrow. But if
Should right-wing politicians be more moral? The question is being raised by Ricky Ross on his superb Sunday morning show on Radio Scotland*; I will be one of the guests. We recorded the discussion this morning. Why, he asked, are Tories seen as being a bit cold-hearted, obsessed with the rich and unconcerned with welfare?
You may notice some changes being introduced to the Spectator website today; we’re having a small refresh to make it cleaner, more elegant – and better able to cope with the two million people (or ‘unique users’) who now read us each month. Everything should be in the same place as before: Nick Cohen, Rod Liddle, Alex
