James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
The stimulus package is now ready to be signed into law by the President. On the one hand, this is a pretty major legislative achievement for Obama within the first month of his administration. On the other, Obama has taken a few knocks in the process and has lost a decent chunk of his reputation
Tucked away on page six of The Guardian is a hugely important story that somehow everyone seems to have missed. Patrick Wintour writes that Terry Burns, the Perm Sec at the Treasury when Brown arrived, gave evidence this week to the Economic Affairs committee of the House of Lords and made clear that the flaws
James Kirkup and Andrew Porter’s guide to the moods of Gordon Brown, the Cabinet and Labour MPs is absolutely essential reading. They write that Labour MPs are increasingly convinced that the next election is lost, cabinet is becoming increasingly fractious and that Brown is heading back to his dark place, he has apparently had to give
Everyone in Westminster expects that when there is a Labour leadership election, Ed Balls will stand. It is tempting to see Balls as a bit of a joke: he’s bad on TV, has been comprehensively out manoeuvred in his brief by Michael Gove and has had a fair few photo-op disasters, the short shorts snap
When I read the scoop about Jacqui Smith’s housing arrangements in The Mail on Sunday my first reaction wasn’t shock or outrage, but a general feeling of there’s another one. Several other stories struck me—and other Coffee House contributors—as more interesting. As the day went on without any comment on it from us, commenters started
David Brooks is the finest American political commentator. But he dedicates one of his two columns a week to brain science. Brain science is, even to someone like me who gladly gave up science at 16, absolutely fascinating. It also has a real relevance to charting a way out of this current crisis. Brooks’ column
The view from the top of the steps on the Lincoln Memorial on in Washington, DC is one of the finest views in the American capital. You look across the reflecting pool, down the national mall to the Washington Monument and to the Capitol beyond. Standing there, at the place where Martin Luther King delivered
Shmuel Rosner has an interesting post up at Commentary about the coalition negotiations in Israel following the elections. Rosner argues that there’s no point following then hour by hour developments during the next few days as all that is going to come out is spin and bluff and counter-bluff. The key dynamics to watch, he
In debates about Afghanistan, and previously Iraq, people like to puff themselves up and declare that ‘there is no military solution’ and that ‘we must talk to those who are prepared to give up violence’. They then rest back in their chairs and wait for everyone to applaud their wisdom. But in fact they have
The apologies, however hedged, from the disgraced bankers at today’s Treasury Select Committee hearing, highlighted that there has been no apology from the Prime Minister for his role in all this. Indeed, Brown’s consistent refusal to acknowledge his errors has diminished whatever was left of his Prime Ministerial authority. Just remember that Today Programme interview
The stimulus has passed the Senate and now heads to a conference to iron out the differences between the House and Senate versions. However, the bill only got three Republican votes meaning that it passed 61-37, only avoiding the threat of being filibustered by one vote. Back at the beginning of January, the Obama team
The exit polls all suggest that Kadima will, by a small margin, win the most seats in the Knesset. However, with Likud coming a close second and Labor appearing to have been forced into fourth by the unsavoury Yisrael Beitenu party of Avigdor Lieberman, Netanyahu appears to have a better chance of forming a government.
News reaches Coffee House that Martin Salter, Labour MP for Reading West, is standing down at the next election. Salter’s seat is, according to UK Polling Report, the 107th Tory target and thus a seat the Tories need to win to have an overall majority in the Commons. PS Salter standing down was not expected.
Watching the bankers’ appearance before the Treasury Select Committee today, it struck me that it is going to take more than an apology that is rapidly hedged as the proceedings go on to assuage public anger. These bankers have become fantastically rich from doing their jobs in a way that led to their banks being
The four bank execs summoned by the Treasury Select Committee hearing have apologised. Although, I suspect that the impact of their apologies has been rather undermined by Sir Fred Goodwin claiming that big bonuses were a ‘source of angst’ for British banks!
Derek Draper has just posted a remarkably crass item on LabourList. Headlined ‘A challenge to Dave: Get your councillors to help Joe Townsend NOW’, he demands that Cameron get the Tory controlled Wealden District Council to reverse their decision and allow planning permission for a bungalow to be built for Joe Townsend, a Marine who lost
Those of us who have to travel by Tube every morning are wearingly familiar with the announcement that lists the bits of the tube that aren’t working—this morning, it was that the Circle Line was suspended because of a signal failure at South Ken—and ends with the self-congratulatory announcement that ‘a good service is operating
Tom Ricks’ series on the surge in The Washington Post continues with a riveting account of how David Petraeus beat back both a chief of Central Commander who wanted to return to the pre-surge tactics that had failed and Congressional Democrats who wanted to admit defeat. Ricks’ account shows Petraeus and his team to be
Reading Decca Aitkenhead’s profile of Jeremy Paxman in The Guardian today, I was reminded of David Cameron’s Newsnight interview back in November 2005. Cameron’s electrifying conference speech and his victory in the MP’s ballot had made him the prohibitive favourite to win the leadership. The Paxman interview, though, was widely regarded as the time when
Sophy Ridge has a good scoop in The News of the World today: the government is operating on the assumption that the number of unemployed will peak at 3.5 million in October 2010. This would be the largest number of people unemployed in modern British history. Indeed when you add in the people on other
