James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
Labour’s General Secretary Peter Watt has tonight resigned over the fundraising scandal that broke this weekend. Watt resigned because he knew that property developer David Abrahams was donating money to the party via friends, an arrangement that legally should have been disclosed. It remains to be seen if this swift departure marks an end to
In a TV interview tonight, Barack Obama takes one of his harshest shots yet at Hillary Clinton. “I think the fact of the matter is that Senator Clinton is claiming basically the entire eight years of the Clinton presidency as her own, except for the stuff that didn’t work out, in which case she says
The Oxford Union’s decision to invite David Irving and Nick Griffin to speak confuses the right to free speech with a duty to offer people a platform. Nick Griffin is, within the bounds of the law, free to sound off in his usual obnoxious way. But that freedom doesn’t oblige anyone to ask Griffin to
Hot on the heels of Adam Boulton speculating about whether Gordon Brown is cut out for the job of being Prime Minister, we have Trevor Kavanagh predicting in his Sun column that, “Gordon will never govern in his own right as an elected Prime Minister.” Kavanagh is no natural Brownite but he’s one of the most
Jackie Ashley is one of the columnists who is normally most sympathetic to Gordon Brown. So her take on the issue of how much trouble the Prime Minister is in is essential reading. Here’s how she starts, “ After days of talking to a wide range of ministers, Labour backbenchers and veteran party figures, my
The Observer has a very readable piece on the opaque nature of the European Parliament this week. One fact in it is truly shocking, even to someone fairly sceptical about the whole affair. This year, the European Union spent £14,400,400 investigating how to reduce the parliament’s administrative costs. As they say, you couldn’t make it
Barack Obama got the question about who he would invite to his ideal dinner party from a newspaper in New Hampshire. The guest list of Jesus, Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln was revealing about how he sees himself. First, it is noticeable that Obama doesn’t pick a Democrat. Second, no figure from the civil rights movement
Richard Holbrooke, America’s UN Ambassador under Bill Clinton who is expected to become Secretary of State if Hillary Clinton wins the White House, has an op-ed in the Washington Post today arguing for more US troops to be sent to the Balkans to deal with the fallout from a Kosovan declaration of independence which is
With Labour down to 31% in the polls, talk has already started about whether the Brown premiership is salvageable or not. It is premature, if tempting, to declare that it is game over for Brown. This morning’s poll shows the Tories have yet to take advantage of the government’s plight and Labour are still a
The Annapolis Middle East summit won’t produce anything more than a commitment to hold another meeting. But the real worry is that Condoleezza Rice’s intense focus on the Israel Palestine question could distract her from more pressing matters in Iraq, Pakistan and North Korea. It must all have been so different in their dreams. Scroll
As America tucks into turkey sandwiches now seems as good a time as any to assess the state of the presidential race. The first contests are now only a little over a month away with the Iowa caucuses on January 3rd and then the New Hampshire primary five days later. Iowa will determine the shape
Labour talks about grammar schools as if they are something out of the dark ages. They’re also currently trying to make it easier for them to be abolished by ballot. Yet, all this disguises the fact that the number of grammars schools pupils in England has been rising steadily under Labour. In 1997 there were
Hillary Clinton received another endorsement for the presidency today and it came with an offer to stump for her, “And if I can be of any use to her somewhere in the campaign, I’m available. I’d like to go with her and I’m going to suggest it to her.” Somehow I can’t see Hillary inviting
One of the great myths about the Bush administration is that is has adopted a cookie-cutter approach to foreign policy. As Tim Montgomerie pointed out in The Times yesterday, there is actually very little ideological consistency to it as proven by the very different approaches taken to Iraq, Iran, North Korea and Pakistan. Of all
There is an increasing sense here in Westminster that the Lib Dem leadership race will be a far closer run thing than anyone was expecting. Indeed,judging by this poll, albeit an unscientific one, at a hustings in Cambridge, Chris Huhne might even pull off a shock victory. But he would be a leader imposed on the
The attack on Gordon Brown’s attitude to the armed forces launched last night in the House of Lords by five former chiefs of the defence staff was absolutely devastating. Lord Guthrie called him “the most unsympathetic Chancellor of the Exchequer, as far as defence was concerned,” Lord Boyce cut through the spin to point out
A new poll has devastating numbers in it for the Prime Minister and the Chancellor. Public confidence in their ability to handle economic problems has collapsed faster than Northern Rock stock and is down 33% since September. Only 28% of the public now have faith in their handling of the issue, The Times finds. Considering
The failure of Steve McClaren’s England team last night has knocked the HMRC debacle off some off the front pages but it is certain that this story will be back. First, blaming some idiot junior member of staff—as Brown and Darling have been doing—just won’t cut it as a senior manager appears to have known
“It’s nonsense to think of Brown as a principled man who wants a new constitutional settlement,” snorted one Whitehall knight. Over a light Italian lunch he revealed that there are even murmurings against the popular Sir Gus O’Donnell, cabinet secretary and head of the home civil service. “There’s a lot of anti-Gus feeling about,” he
Gordon Brown came out of that exchange better than I thought he would. He stayed calm and was actually doing very well until he tried blame the Tories, arguing that the Tory manifesto would have cut HMRC’s budget, and that gave David Cameron the opening the needed o deliver the scathing soundbite that will be replayed