James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
I’m normally slightly sceptical of the value of Early Day Motions; too few of them justify the £627,000 that they cost the taxpayer in 2005/6. But one put down today by Paul Goodman and Michael Gove, two of the most decent men in the House, makes an important statement: “This House, recognising that freedom of
Anatole Kaletsky has a cracking column in The Times today about Gordon Brown’s political difficulties. One point is particularly worth noting: Brown doesn’t know how to triangulate. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair were geniuses at triangulating because they knew it wasn’t simply splitting the difference between left and right but finding, cliché alert, a third
The speculation over whether President George W. Bush will order strikes on Iran before he leaves office in January 2009 will ramp up another notch with the news that the Bush administration is requesting $88 million to alter B-2 Stealth bombers so that they can carry the largest conventional bomb yet developed by the US military. These
Oh, this is going to be fun. Adam Boulton, writing in the New Statesman, says that Tony Blair and David Cameron will indeed be holding a meeting soon. Apparently, Blair wants to brief Cameron on his role in the Middle East. The substance of the meeting might be high-minded and Blair is—as Fraser reports in
When it comes to winning the peace few people know more than Paddy Ashdown so his warning that Afghanistan is “lost” is particularly alarming. The Telegraph quotes him setting out the consequences of defeat: “I believe losing in Afghanistan is worse than losing in Iraq. It will mean that Pakistan will fall and it will
When Gordon Brown first announced the outsiders he had recruited to his ‘ministry of all the talents’ there was much chuckling in Westminster about whether Digby Jones or Mark Malloch Brown would be the first minister to be sacked. Early on, Malloch Brown moved into pole position with an insufferably pompous interview in the Telegraph
Most people chuckled at California when it elected Arnold Schwarzenegger governor. But the sheer competence of the state government’s reaction to the appalling wild fires that are sweeping the state suggest that Arnie is much better at his job than many professional politicians. Certainly, as Newsweek points out, the contrast to Katrina could not be
The military success of the surge in Iraq has been quite astonishing but much remains to be done on the political front. Part of the reason for this is that Iraqi politicians like to go right up to the wire, as they at every stage in the political process since 2003, before reaching an agreement. Still
In The Guardian, Gordon Brown asks the world to focus itself on Burma today as Aung Sui Kyi’s 12th year under house arrest draws to and end. The Prime Minister’s op-ed is full of noble sentiments and fine words but it inadvertently reveals the gap between words and actions when it comes to Burma. When
The constitutional settlement created by New Labour is clearly iniquitous. But what is interesting about the current debate is that it is based around the higher public spending per head in Scotland, which existed before devolution, not the West Lothian question. I always though that the devolution chickens would come home to roost when some
Folk on the previous thread seem to think that I should have dismissed Norman Baker’s belief that David Kelly might have been murdered so quickly. The problem is when you read through the serialisation of his book is it so littered with the most incredible conspiracy theories that he insists on treating with a seriousness
Norman Baker, the Lib Dem MP, has gained a reputation in Westminster as one of the best ferreters out of information. But his new theories about how David Kelly died appear a little far-fetched. (Anything which involves letters from people who sign themselves ‘Nemesis’ seems a little suspect to me). David Aaronvitch in The Times
One of the surprises of Gordon Brown’s premiership so far to date, is how little substantive policy there has been. Pretty much everything Brown has done has been about political positioning—putting the Tories in an awakward spot, distancing himself from Blair and the like. As Rachel Sylvester argues in the Telegraph this morning a positive
If I was a betting man, I’d be very tempted by the 16 to 1 available on John McCain to be the 2008 Republican nominee. McCain has had a fantastic few weeks and is steadily clawing back some of the support he lost earlier in the campaign. He is once more getting some media love—crucial
Even by the high standards of this government the idea that schools should have to give back 5% of any money they save to the government seems particularly half-baked. Whatever happened to Gordon’s love of prudence? Calculations by the Lib Dems indicate that up to 80% of schools in England could be affected.
The Guardian this morning reveals that the election that never was cost the Labour party about £1 million with poster sites being pre-booked, staff hired and election communications printed. By contrast, the Tories are thought to have spent only about a fifth of this amount. One anecdote concerning Martin Linton is particularly cruel: “Martin Linton,
Coffee House’s scoop about how The Independent reprinted in its pages a Foreign Office talking points on the EU Treaty with only the most minor of changes and without attribution is making waves. There is, as Neil O’Brien argued in his original post, something deeply disturbing about a newspaper reproducing the government line yet presenting it to
Anyone who thinks that our abortion laws–or to be more precise, how they are interpreted—don’t need looking at should read this article from The Sunday Times. Here’s how it starts: “More than 50 babies with club feet were aborted in just one area of England in a three-year period, according to new statistics. Thirty-seven babies
Under the arresting headline “Wanted: a national culture”, The Times carries an extract from the Chief Rabbi’s new book. Here’s the key section of Jonathan Sack’s argument: “In 1961, suicide ceased to be a crime. This might seem a minor and obviously humane measure, but it was the beginning of the end of England as
The gloves are coming off in the US presidential race. Today, Rudy Giuliani’s team labelled Mitt Romney a Hillary Clinton clone, which is like a Labour politician calling one of his colleagues a Thatcherite in the 1980s. While on the Democratic side, John Edwards and Barack Obama are taking increasingly openly swings at Hillary Clinton.
