James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
The reaction of three of the most influential commentators on the left to the Queen’s speech is instructive. Michael White in The Guardian suggests that it was less important than people think as Gordon Brown will probably go until 2010 before calling an election meaning that there will be time for one more full legislative
Michael White’s diary for Guardian Unlimited is always worth reading and today it has a fascinating little tit-bit that I hadn’t heard before. Apparently, it was Sarah Brown who persuaded Admiral Sir Alan West to become the security minister in Gordon Brown’s so-called gvernment of all the talents by phoning up his wife.
Ben Brogan flags up a hilarious, and worrying, stat from the FT this morning. Only 71 people responded to the government’s online consultation on the Queen’s speech. The FT also reveals that a government paid for regional road-show event cost more than £50,000. If Gordon Brown really wanted to know what the public thought of
It has long been a joke in Westminster that you don’t need to put your finger in the wind to see which way it is blowing, you just watch Jack Straw. So the fact that Jack Straw has revived the tradition of walking backwards once the Gracious Speech has been handed to the monarch should
Perhaps the most depressing story in the papers today is the one about how Thabo Mbeki remains an “AIDS dissident.” The Guardian reports how Mark Gevisser, a biographer of Mbeki, found that Mbeki regretted having withdrawn from the debate over the link between HIV and AIDS. Here’s the key section: “Mr Gevisser recounts how Mr
A Populus poll for tomorrow’s Times has Labour on 37, the Tories on 36 and the Lib Dems on 16. The Lib Dems are the big gainers, up four, while the two main parties have both lost votes. The Lib Dems are clearly benefitting form the extra attention they are getting thanks to their leadership
The speech by Jonathan Evans, the Director General of MI5, to the Society of Editor’s conference is well worth reading in full. Iraq and the dodgy dossiers mean that it has become impossible for government ministers to talk about the terrorist threat without been accused of scaremongering or trying to win public support for an
Following on from King Abdullah’s claim that the British were warned about 7/7, Prince Bandar—formerly the Saudi ambassador to the US who is extremely close to the Bush family—has said that if the Americans had cooperated with the Saudi properly, 9/11 wouldn’t have happened. Here’s how ABC’s The Blotter reports the Prince’s remarks: “Saudi security
The Guardian reports this morning that neither David Miliband nor Condi Rice can get General Musharraf to return their calls. This suggests that Musharraf might be preparing to renege on his pledge to go ahead with elections in January. It is crucial that Britain and America do not end up appearing to endorse any postponement
This essay on Barack Obama’s foreign policy is well worth reading for an insight into the candidate’s thinking and his growing frustration with Hillary Clinton. One quote stood out to me as revealing how different Obama is from Hillary: “ Ask Nye why Hillary’s paint-by-the-numbers foreign policy makes her more qualified to handle a crisis
Nigel Hastilow, the Tory candidate who said Enoch was right, has resigned rather than an issue an apology for his remarks. The speed with which he has gone has minimised the damage that has been done but Hastilow’s comments illustrate just how dangerous the immigration issue can be for the Conservatives; Peter Hain got in
Pakistan’s constitutional crisis is the biggest problem the world has faced since 9/11. It is not alarmist to suggest that there is a possibility that a nuclear power could either end up being run by radical Islamists or as a failed state. This Washington Post story shows how volatile the situation is. Xenia Dormandy, who was the
The news that General Musharraf has imposed emergency rule, effectively martial law, in Pakistan is extremely worrying. Musharraf has done this despite a full court press from the West and the consequences are potentially disastrous. If the protests that will inevitably follow are put down with violence or if Benazir Bhutto, who is reportedly sitting
Today’s editorial in The Times on the improvements in Iraq is well worth reading in full. The key point is that the political debate about Iraq on both sides of the Atlantic no longer reflects the reality of the situation. Things have improved to an extent that it is no longer absurd to start thinking
Cameron enters the immigration debate The government’s failure to count up the number of foreign workers in this country rightly reinforces the public’s fear that control of the borders has been lost, that an unstoppable tide of migrants is flowing into the country. It is in these circumstances that unsavoury politics flourish. To Gordon Brown’s
Hillary Clinton has used her gender brilliantly in the Democratic primaries to date and her campaign has been quick to depict Tuesday night’s debate, which was Hillary’s worst moment of the campaign so far and has sett off lots of chatter about whether she can be stopped after all, as a bunch of dudes beating
In The Guardian today, Alexander Chancellor reflects on how though more and more pheasants are being bred and shot the public won’t eat them, meaning that most of the birds go to waste. But Chancellor thinks he might have found a solution: “We should at least take advantage of the bloodlust of the new rich
The press this morning are almost unanimous in calling for Sir Ian Blair to resign. While we should not forget that the Met was operating under incredible pressure that day in almost panic conditions, the verdict does reveal a devastating set of failures. It is hard to see how Sir Ian Blair can restore the
Today, as the Tories are eager to remind us, would have been election day if Gordon hadn’t lost his nerve. What would have happened will be a great parlour game for years to come but Anthony Wells’s analysis is well worth noting: “More importantly looking at the current polls I suspect Labour would have been
The military success of the surge in Iraq continues to astound. In October the number of civilian deaths was less than half of what it was in January, when the violence was as its peak. The last month also saw the smallest number of US military fatalities in the country since March 2006. This is