No-one thought that Gordon Brown would be much of a statesman but, even so, it’s still surprising just how clumsy his efforts in India and China have been. His speeches may have contained words such as “co-operation” but the substance of them has been self-serving and – as the Spectator’s Fraser Nelson has pointed-out –
Over the weekend, Nick Clegg had a piece in the Telegraph in which he extolled the virtues of NHS reform. He wrote: “As it approaches its 60th Birthday, the NHS is at a crossroads. As with all our public services under Labour, good intentions have gone awry under the iron fist of central control. Money
In an interview on today’s Politics Show, David Miliband reiterated the government’s opposition to a referendum on the EU Reform Treaty, claiming that: “The reformed Treaty is there for parliament to scrutinise and then to pass …. Obviously, people will put down an amendment and parliament will have to decide, but I don’t think this
On Tuesday, the Spectator’s Clemency Burton-Hill wrote an impassioned post on how the Arts Council of England’s recent funding settlement could spell death for numerous theatrical companies across the country. Many media outlets have run similar pieces – pleading the case for this theatre or that – but few have been as persuasive as Richard
The Spectator’s Stephen Pollard has already blogged about this weekend’s big cultural draw – the Sunday performance of La traviata at the Royal Opera House. Although, if you haven’t yet bought tickets for this “once in a generation” treat, then you’ll have difficulty in getting to see it – all performances are sold out. Far
A new report from the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies makes the claim that “the outlook for inequality in Britain may depend more on the stock market than on Government tax and benefit policies”. Basically, the IFS have found that income inequality between the richest and poorest members of society declines “in the wake of
In an excellent post over at Comment Central, Daniel Finkelstein lists the reasons why he thinks John McCain will win the Republican nomination. Finkelstein’s second point is the most persuasive: “Second, I think that [John McCain] and Rudy Giuliani are the only Republicans with the remotest chance of winning in a general election. I don’t
As a follow-up to my post yesterday on the number of new jobs being occupied by the over-50s, I should point out that there’s a good piece on the matter by Melanie McDonagh in today’s Times. McDonagh rightly argues that an increasingly grey component of the labour market is a positive development: “The notion that
As Larry Elliot reports in today’s Guardian, a rise in the number of over-50s gaining employment has “helped Britain shrug off the impact of the credit crunch”. Recent figures from the ONS reveal that, in the three months to November, 175,000 new jobs were created in the economy, with an astonishing 90,000 – some 51
The London mayoral race is entering a bitter period, with most of the invective being directed at Ken Livingstone. Of course, we shouldn’t be too surprised when the Evening Standard, which has had its run-ins with Livingstone, produces headlines such as “Mayor ‘misled public over cash'”. But – surprising or not – these headlines will
With the Charity Commission recommending that private schools should do more for the “public benefit”, public school headmasters are at odds over whether or not they do enough already. As Melanie Phillips has already noted in a must-read Spectator blog post, the first shot was fired by the headmaster of Wellington College, Dr Anthony Seldon,
Pete Hoskin At yesterday’s low-key Golden Globes ceremony, the British film ‘Atonement’ was named the Best Dramatic Motion Picture of the year; making it the front-runner for the “Best Picture” Oscar next month. Thankfully – and thanks should go to the Writers’ Guild of America – we were spared acceptance speeches yesterday. This meant that
In London, the biggest draw of the weekend may well be the production of King Lear at the New London Theatre (which is receiving some enthusiastic and some not-so-enthusiastic notices). However, what you really should go and see – even though it has already been around for a few weeks – is the Walter Sickert