It has, to paraphrase Margo Channing, already been a bumpy night — and it’s only going to get bumpier today. The latest news is how the Asian markets have trembled at what’s happening in the West. Japan’s main stock index is down 3.7 per cent. Australia’s is down 4.2 per cent. Hong Kong’s 5.3 per
A bet-hedging sort of report into the UK’s economy from the IMF today, which largely supports George Osborne’s deficit reduction plan, but will also give some encouragement to his detractors. By way of a summary, here are the parts that might satisfy Osborne himself, as well as Vince Cable, Ed Balls and Mervyn King: The
I answer the question in an article for the Times (£) today, in response to Francis Maude’s announcement yesterday. But for those CoffeeHousers who can’t vault the paywall, here’s the relevant passage: “I have been told of an internal report that makes the argument sublimely well. Before last year’s spending review, the Treasury asked a
After all that, the House of Representatives has passed the bill to raise America’s debt ceiling, by 269 votes to 161. But, for all the economic significance of last night, it was the vote of one woman that really set proceedings alight. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords returned to the floor of the House for the first
There are few more useful addendums to Danny Alexander’s comments earlier than YouGov’s poll for the Sunday Times today. It asks people about individual policies for growth, and the results will be disheartening for the Tory leadership and encouraging for Ed Balls. An overwhelming majority supports Balls’s call for a cut in VAT, while few
Danny Alexander is usually the very model of collective responsibility: sober, unfussy and diligent, he sets about the coalition’s work without ever causing a scene. Which is what makes his televised comments about the 50p tax rate earlier all the more striking. When pressed on the subject by interviewer Sophie Rayworth, the Chief Secretary to
At last, signs that Washington’s lawmakers may have scrabbled together a debt deal after all. According to the overnight wires, the White House and Congressional leaders have alighted on a package that would raise the ceiling by $2.4 trillion, so long as the deficit is reduced by at least the same amount over the next
Coffee House congratulations to Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall, who were married in Edinburgh today. Footage via ConservativeHome:
Something quite remarkable has happened over the past couple of the days. It started with the launch of the government’s new e-petition site, which promises that any petition which secures 100,000 signatures will be “eligible for debate in the House of Commons”. And it continued with Guido Fawkes submitting a petition to reinstate the death
Are the seeping knife wounds healing at last? This morning’s Guardian reveals that Ed Miliband has offered his older brother a role as Labour’s “unofficial ambassador on university and college campuses”, and that David Miliband has accepted. Although party sources tell the paper that “this should not be seen as a sign that [MiliD] is
Momentousness without momentum. That’s what we’re getting from America at the moment, as this all-crucial debt deal continues to stutter and stall. The main development in Washington yesterday was John Boehner securing enough Republican votes to pass his bill in the House of Representatives — only for it to be summarily tabled by Democrats in
Just the thing to liven up a slow news day: a response from the Tory backbencher Louise Mensch to a series of insinuating points put to her by “David Jones Investigative Journalists”. The points were all about her time working at the record company EMI in the 90s; about her drug use, night-clubbing habits, that
The homepage of the Washington Post has a clock ticking down to America’s debt-ceiling deadline: four days, 14 hours, and a fast-declining number of minutes and seconds. It also has details of the events, last night, that upset the prospect of a deal being reached yet again. The Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives,
All of the buccaneering rhetoric has been sucked from the Libyan conflict this week, replaced with words of concession, compromise and caution. A few days ago, it was the news that — contrary to what they might previously have said — the government is prepared to let Gaddafi remain in the country after all. Today,
“The News of the World proved is is a force for good.” So said Sara Payne, the mother of the murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne, in a column for the final edition of the paper. Its writers and editors had supported her unerringly, she wrote, in her campaign for tighter laws against child molesters. “I shall
Westminster, today, is all a-titter about an anecdote contained within this FT article about Steve Hilton. It is, it must be said, a good ‘un: “Mr Hilton’s crusade against employment legislation also saw him suggest that Mr Cameron just ignore European labour regulations on temporary workers, prompting an exasperated exchange with Jeremy Heywood, Downing Street’s
There was much sly amusement earlier this week when George Osborne, responding to the latest growth figures, described Britain as “a safe haven in the storm”. The idea that our high inflation, low growth economy might be a “safe” anything seemed, to many, a grotesque idea. But, in truth, the Chancellor may have had
Remember that merry dance between the government and the unions over public sector pensions, a few weeks ago? Expect a minor reprise today, and much more over the summer. The government today announces how much extra public sector workers will have to pay to maintain their pension levels, and already the Telegraph has the numbers.
Aside from Boris’s exhortations to George Osborne, one of the most ear-catching lines of the day has been uttered by Jeremy Hunt. “I think the relationships between politicians and the media got too cosy,” said the culture secretary on Radio 5 this morning. He’s certainly not the first to make the point, but he is
As Paul Waugh notes, James Purnell’s article for the Times today (£) is striking for its attack on universal benefits. “I have never bought the argument,” writes the former welfare secretary, “that universal benefits bind the middle classes in. It feels too much like taxing with one hand to give back with another.” Although this