James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
There is a fascinating, and worrying, poll in the FT this morning about people’s attitudes to globalisation. Remarkably, about 60 percent of the electorate in the UK favour government imposed pay caps for the heads of companies. Less than 20% think globalisation is good for this country. Indeed, of the six countries surveyed—Britain, France, Italy,
When a British citizen is killed on British soil and a foreign government refuses to hand over the suspected killer for trial, then the British government must act. It was imperative that David Miliband demonstrated to the Russian government that their failure to extradite Andrei Lugovoi, the suspected killer of Alexander Litvinenko, would have consequences.
Gordon Brown has just announced that they’ll be a review in to whether cannabis should be reclassified as a Class B drug. As we know, Brown only holds a review when he’s already made up his mind so we can expect cannabis to be back to being a Class B substance by the next election.
This is quite incredible: there are more people in US military bands than in the entire US foreign service. Hat tip: My old colleagues at Foreign Policy
The TaxPayers alliance has a corking piece of research, available on their new website, out on the cost of overruns in public sector projects. They’ve examined the records of 305 schemes that have either being completed since 2005 or are ongoing and found that each household in Britain is effectively paying £900 for them going
Douglas Alexander’s speech in Washington last night is being portrayed as distancing Gordon Brown’s administration from George W. Bush’s post 9/11 foreign policy. Particular importance is being attached to this passage: “In the 20th century a country’s might was too often measured in what they could destroy. In the 21st century strength should be measured
The BBC has now apologised to The Spectator and the Queen within 24 hours. Who should be next in line for an apology from the Beeb? Suggest away.
With Britain and Russia on the verge of Cold War style diplomatic expulsions over Russia’s refusal to extradite Andrei Lugovoi over the death of Alexander Litvinenko, do read Fraser’s cover story on what Putin is up to.
New York magazine has a piece that is well worth reading on the one issue where Hillary is busy distancing herself from the record of the Clinton presidency: trade. Free trade always takes a hammering during the Democratic primaries thanks to the influence of the labour unions, but there does seem to be something more
Gordon Brown’s Today Programme interview this morning was fascinating, you’ll be able to listen to it here in a little bit. It was clear how much the family agenda rattles Brown. He kept saying that he was pro-marriage but then getting tied up in knots whenever he was asked about what measures should be taken
The always astute Irwin Stelzer has an interesting op-ed in today’s Telegraph on Gordon Brown’s foreign policy. Stelzer reveals that Brown has been angered by reports that he has banned the use of the phrase ‘war on terror’—which doesn’t explain why so many of his ministers are running from the phrase. But Stelzer’s key point
This New York Times story about the Bush administration considering abandoning the surge far more quickly than anyone is expecting is well worth reading. Also, take a look at this impassioned Bill Kristol piece urging the White House not to back down. While we’re on the other side of the Atlantic, this blog from the
Amidst all the publicity surrounding the publication of Alastair Campbell’s diaries, it is easy to forget that David Cameron’s new spin doctor, former News of the World editor Andy Coulson, starts work today. Conservative Home, complete with sleek re-design, has some good advice for him.
If you want to get an idea of how unpopular Dick Cheney has become, consider this: 54% of American think the House of Representatives should impeach him.
The latest development in the saga of who will be the Tory candidate to take on Red Ken is the Tory claim that Digby Jones wanted to be their candidate, something that Jones denies. Anyway, we’re backing Boris.
Brown’s statement on the Constitution can be read here. Interestingly, he’s shot Cameron’s fox on both a national security council and giving Parliament the power to declare war—both bad ideas in my opinion. Overall, he’s been radical enough to win plaudits from Charter 88 et al but not radical enough to cost Labour any votes.
President Bush’s decision to commute the prison sentence of Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney’s former chief of staff, will attract criticism. But it’s the right thing to do, as I tried to explain here.
Martin Kettle has a typically astute piece in The Guardian this morning. Kettle argues that Brown is trying to pull off the Sarkozy trick of demonstrating that the best, new government is an improved and refreshed version of the old one; enough change to be different but not enough to scare the horses. Kettle also does
Mark Malloch-Brown, who spoke at the Tory conference last year and was Kofi Annan’s chief of staff, is going to be a junior minister at the FCO. This is more important than it looks, more soon.
Here’s the latest reshuffle speculation. Nearly all the papers are agreed that David Miliband is going to the Foreign Office, Alan Johnson to Health, Ed Balls to the schools part of a split education ministry and Jack Straw to the Justice Ministry. The Independent reports that Ed Miliband is going to the Cabinet Office and