James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
From Matthew Parris in The Times today: The Brown saga is less Shakespearean tragedy than Pinter farce. The Ozymandian statue will be inscribed, not “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!” but “Gordon Brown – what were we thinking of?”. The whole column is, as always with Matthew, well worth reading. As Matthew says,
One of the things that will become apparent in the coming years is just how irresponsible this last Budget was. It put party ahead of country in a way that few Budgets ever had. Many civil servants, who know the true numbers, are despairing about what it means for Britain’s future. Peter Oborne writes today
One of the reasons Obama has been so successful in his brief political career is that he has largely dodged the culture wars. I remember in Iowa and New Hampshire meeting many voters who were drawn to him because they wanted to, in Obama’s phrase, stop re-litigating the 1960s. But the Supreme Court vacancy caused
We know the date of at least one election in 2010: the locals will be on May 6h. There also has to be a general election by Thursday the third of June. It is hard to see how the government could recover from a drubbing in May to win an election in June. It is almost certain that
If you want an idea of how worrying the situation in Pakistan is, read this story from James Rosen: ‘Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. Central Command, has told U.S. officials the next two weeks are critical to determining whether the Pakistani government will survive, FOX News has learned. “The Pakistanis have run out of
Paul Routledge in today’s Daily Mirror: “David Cameron is no different to Thatcher. He is – and I’m afraid you have to accept my word for this – a crap employer. And anybody who does not treat his staff properly is, to my mind, not fit to employ the nation and run the country.” Charles
Martin Kettle reports in The Guardian today that: “There is a lot of talk now about yet another shakeout at No 10. Lord Mandelson is pressing for a senior politician – not necessarily himself – to fill the righthand man role that Chris Patten played for John Major in 1992.” This is understandable given that, as
Yesterday, The Times published an interview with William Hague. Here’s how it reported his views on the defence budget and Trident: ‘The MoD budget was “not immune”. But he again pledged his party to upgrading the Trident nuclear deterrent.’ But today at his press conference, David Cameron said: “having the best replacement there is for
Ross Douthat, the new New York Times columnist, has a smart piece up at The Atlantic arguing that the beginning of the Obama presidency has been the easy bit precisely because his inheritance has been so bad. Here’s the nub of his argument: “Barack Obama hit the trifecta. He’s inherited two ongoing military conflicts; he’s
In the slew of polling data that has come out to mark Obama’s 100 days, two numbers stand out to me: 81 percent of Americans like Obama, that’s 30 percent more than support his policies. This is a result of several things: his personal manner, the fact that people appreciate the historical significance of having
Parliament has handed away too many of its powers in recent years and the behaviour of too many of its members have brought it into disrepute, but today it did the right thing in standing up for the rights of Gurkhas. To my mind, any Gurkha who served should have the right to live here
Apologies for the ad at the beginning.
Brown begins with a tribute to the solider who died in Afghanistan. Bill Cash then asks Brown when he next intends to do a ‘comedy turn’ on YouTube. An irritated Brown bats it back. Brown announces in a reply to a question about swine flue that there are three more confirmed UK cases. One school
One of the many odd aspects of Gordon Brown’s expenses gambit was why he came out with a proposal that was bound to be mocked as paying MPs just to turn up. It would only have been worth the Prime Minister coming out with his own proposals before the official review and before he’d consulted
The defection of Arlen Specter is a nice momentum booster for Obama on the eve of his 100th day in office. To be sure, by switching parties Specter has saved himself a debilitating primary fight and pretty much guaranteed himself re-election in a state that is becoming increasingly Democratic. But even if the move is
Arlen Specter, the moderate Republican Senator from Pennsylvania who faced a primary challenge, is switching to caucus with the Democrats in the Senate.
Mary Dejevsky writes today on one of my favourite topics, why aren’t British academics more engaged in policy debates. Where is the British Greg Mankiw or Paul Krugman? It is crazy that we have four of the 10 best universities in the world, but that our academics play such a limited role in public life and policy
David Brooks is, to my mind, the most perceptive American commentator. He is a conservative who understands Obama and what he is trying to do. So, I was particularly interested by his remarks on the Charlie Rose show where he said that Cameron’s emphasis on society is what the right should offer as an alternative
Nouriel Roubini, the doctor doom of the credit crunch, sounds a mildly optimistic note in an interview with the Washington Post: “I don’t believe we are going to end up in a near-depression. Six months ago I was more worried about an L-shaped near-depression. Today, after the very aggressive policy actions taken by the U.S.
In his speech earlier today, George Osborne said: ‘we must deal with the toxic debts of the banks we now own. They will be zombies until we do. Neither dead nor fully alive.’ The clear implication of this statement, and several others that Conservative spokesmen have made in the last few months, is that a