James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
There is an interesting little story tucked away in today’s Daily Mirror, the government might only sell off Northern Rock and Bradford and Bingley on condition that they are turned into mutually-owned societies. Jason Beattie reports that the idea of turning them back into building societies is being backed by John McFall, the chairman of
News is breaking that the Health Minister Lord Darzi is leaving the government. By my count, that means Lord West is the ony one of Gordon’s goats still in post.
If further proof were needed that the public’s attitude to public spending has changed it comes in the latest Guardian / ICM poll. It finds that 64 percent of voters think that spending should be being reduced now as opposed to 28 percent who want it increased: the electorate is on the other side of
Christopher Caldwell’s New York Times Magazine profile of David Cameron has finally been published; Caldwell first interviewed Cameron for it last year. I expect the Tories will see it as an important non-electoral milestone for them, a sign that the American establishment expects Cameron to be the next Prime Minister. The piece is, as you
Some good news for Andy Coulson and David Cameron with Yates’s statement that there will be no new police investigation into the matter. It’ll be fascinating to see how much play this story gets in the papers tomorrow.
David Cameron finds himself caught up in a war between two media tribes following the revelations about the phone hacking at the News of the World during Andy Coulson’s editorship. On the one side, there’s The Guardian—whose scoop it was—and the BBC; for the BBC this episode is a chance to both make an ideological
I disagree with Helena Kennedy on a whole host of issues, but her speech last night in the Lords debate on assisted suicide was fantastic. Here’s the opening section of it: “Although I am a great believer in individual liberty and in the autonomy of the individual, I also believe strongly in the symbolic nature
Sir Hugh Orde, the new president of ACPO, has predictably come out against elected police chiefs. Andrew Sparrow has the key extract from his speech: “If people seriously think some form of elected individual is better placed to oversee policing than the current structure, then I am very interested in the detail of how that
The government’s dire warnings that if the amendment passed all income taxes collected this tax year would have to be repaid, seems to have deterred many of the rebels.
Last week, Bernie Ecclestone gave an incredibly stupid interview to The Times which was published on Saturday. He told Alice Thomson and Rachel Sylvester that democracy was over-rated and trotted out some crass cultural determinism. But the really damaging bit was this section: Does he have a favourite historical dictator — Stalin, perhaps, or Mussolini?
There was a time when the government seemed to be announcing new measures to get the economy and the banking sector in particular moving again on an almost daily basis. Today, the Wall Street Journal has done a rather good audit of these measures. For instance, in January “the British government created a guarantee program
Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA Middle East hand, has an interesting analysis of the huge news from Iran, the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum have declared the election invalid and the Ahamdinejad government illegitimate. What will happen next is crucial but unpredictable. Gerecht speculates that: “If Khamenei tries to crush Qom in
David Miliband is right that political parties need to adapt if they are to survive. Membership of all the main parties are down and the number of activists they can call on in shrinking. His John Smith memorial lecture contains some worthwhile ideas on how to open up the Labour party. But, as so often,
Trevor Kavanagh’s column in The Sun today has a little story in it which shows how tense relations are between John Bercow and some MPs. ‘Thin-skinned new Commons Speaker John Bercow is a “tosser”. Not my choice of words, although it fairly describes a man who is fast becoming even more embarrassing than disgraced predecessor
Ahead of Tony Blair’s launch of a report on climate change, he’s given an interview to The Sunday Times. The interviewer Jonathan Leake is highly sceptical of Blair and takes particular issue with this statement from him: “The answer to climate change,” he says solemnly, “is the development of science and technology. Yes, we will
The situation in Iran might have been knocked off the front pages in recent days and the regime does seem to have regained control of the streets. But things are clearly not over yet. The New York Times today reports that the “most important group of religious leaders in Iran [Association of Researchers and Teachers
Seeing as it is the Fourth of July, I hope Coffee Housers will indulge me in a quick post on the Declaration of Independence. The document was, of course, drafted by Thomas Jefferson. But Ben Franklin ran his eye over Jefferson’s draft and made a few changes. One of them, can I think, lay claim
Sarah Palin’s decision to quit as governor of Alaska is perplexing. It is hard to see how she can be a credible presidential candidate when she failed to serve out even one term as governor. There has been little normal or orthodox about Palin’s political career and trying to assess why she is walking away
Steve Richards’ column in today’s Independent – analysing Brown’s u-turns on the Post Office, 42 days and the abolition of 10p tax rate – is superb. As Steve notes, all these u-turns have in common the question of where does Brown stand in relation to Blairism; is he break from it or its continuation? Steve’s
It strikes me as being in both bad taste and politically foolish for Alan Duncan to suggest that Gordon Brown is “vandalising” the despatch box when he uses a thick pen to take notes during PMQs. It is bad taste because the reason Brown uses a thick, black felt-tip because he is blind in one