James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
The most encouraging thing about the news that Fabio Capello is set to become England manager is his refusal to accept egos in his team. One of the problems that has so blighted England in recent years is our obsession with star players at the expense of the team itself; exhibit a is how long
At first glance, Labour’s decision to pick a politically damaging fight over police pay when avoiding it would cost £40 million at most is bizarre. But as Michael White explains in The Guardian this morning, police pay is just the first public sector pay battle that Labour will have to fight. With the public finances
The Republican primary race has entered a decisive phase with Mitt Romney’s decision to go negative on the surging Mike Huckabee. Romney’s unleashed the first attack ad of the campaign hitting Huckabee for his position on immigration and he’s knocking him in tough language on television, telling last night’s evening news that: “I’m convinced as
Than miserable looking employees in Santa hats. Getting my coffee this morning, I was struck by just how dejected all the baristas in Santa hats looked. If some Union wants to launch a campaign against folk being forced to wear them, I’m with them.
Dmitri Medvedev, who Vladimir Putin anointed as his successor yesterday, today pledged to make Putin Prime Minister of Russia when he takes office. Medvedev even admitted that Putin would be more powerful than him: “In order to stay on this path, it is not enough to elect a new president who shares this ideology,” Mr.
Both Rachel Sylvester and Steve Richards cast their expert eyes over the Labour succession in their columns today. The current emphasis on who will succeed him must be absolutely infuriating for Gordon Brown, nothing makes a leader look like a lame duck more than everyone speculating about who will be next. The explanation for this
Today’s poll in The Times shows how much in flux British politics still is. A Tory optimist looking at it might rejoice that the party has breached 40 percent for the first time in a Populus poll. On the other hand, a pessimist might wonder why the party isn’t at 45 percent, the level at
At first blush, Vladimir Putin’s decision to anoint the relatively liberal Dmitry Medvedev as his successor rather than the hawkish, former KGB agent Sergey Ivanov appears to be a signal that Russia is not set on out and out confrontation with the West. But this New York Times story suggests that Putin might just be
Chris Patten is trying to assure us all that there is nothing to worry about in terms of foreign policy in the EU Treaty previously known as the Constitution. Playing a weak hand, Patten tries to change the subject, telling Mark Mardell: “The biggest issue to effect our sovereignty in the last few years has
One of the puzzles of the blogosphere in Britain is why there is so much more energy on the right than the left. In Media Guardian today, Matt suggests that the reason for this is that blogging is an essentially oppositional medium. He points out that in the States the left is far more vibrant
If you want a feel for how dramatically both the Republican and Democratic primary races have tightened in the US, consider this: “The only candidate in either party with a lead outside of the margin of error in the big 3 states (Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina) is Republican Mike Huckabee who sports a
With the UN deadline for a final status agreement on Kosovo passing without success, we are now into a dangerous and unpredictable phase. The Kosovans will declare independence at some point in the near future, although the word is that they will wait months not week before doing so. A Kosovan declaration of independence will
John Rentoul’s column in the Independent on Sunday illustrates how the Blair – Brown feud is still poisoning Labour politics. Rentoul points out that most of the September plotters against Blair have been rewarded with jobs under Brown, often in the departments run by the Prime Minister’s closest allies. Rentoul then goes onto reveal that,
Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, has come from nowhere to lead the Republican field in the lead-off state of Iowa. A large part of Huckabee’s appeal has been that he’s the relaxed, affable face of Christian conservatism. But the answers that he gave to a 1992 survey have put a considerable dent in
The big political story of the New Year will be how Gordon Brown tries to get his groove back. Peter Oborne reports in the Mail this morning that Brown’s plans include a regional tour, a possible cabinet reshuffle and a rapprochement with the Blairites. To that end, Oborne reveals: “There is now lively talk inside
The Anglo-Saxon powers have been triumphant in every major global conflict for the past 300 years. This is the kind of statement that is so sweeping that you desperately want it to be wrong. But it is right. Either Britain or America — or both — emerged victorious from the war of the Spanish succession,
I’m normally fairly sceptical about the value of celebrity endorsements. I can’t imagine that if, say, Frank Lampard urged people to vote Tory at the next election it would make much of a difference. But the exception to this rule is Oprah Winfrey, the American chat show host who is going out to stump for
Just when you thought that the David Abrahams’s story could not become any more bizzare, along comes this. The Jewish Chronicle has an explosive interview with Abrahams this morning in which he warns that if “the government starts hammering” him, then the whole affair “might take one or two dirty turns.” He also claims that
With today’s news that Yulia Tymoshenko, one of the key figures in the Orange Revolution, is set to return as Prime Minister of the Ukraine, it is well worth re-reading the interview that Allister Heath did with her in May last year. What’s particularly interesting–apart from her saying that Margaret Thatcher is her role model–is
If I was Gordon Brown, one of the things that would worry me most is how much more relaxed Labour figure are becoming about expressing unhelpful thoughts. Just today we have Matthew Taylor, Tony Blair’s former chief strategic adviser, telling The Guardian that the Brownite handling of donor-gate has been “inept” and that it’s “too