Sex, and plenty of it. That’s certainly what Bunny Munro — the titular protagonist of Nick Cave’s second novel — wants. And, in a roundabout way, he gets it. In the very first chapter, he’s cheating on his wife with a prostitute; in the second, it’s a hotel waitress; in the third, he’s given to
On Thursday night, we will most likely see a restrained performance from Nick Griffin – one which, in itself, gives little clue as to some of the disgraceful tenets of his party. But, as Sunder Katwala points out over at Next Left, Griffin’s official response to the letter released by military figures today leaves no
And so the strangeness continues: the latest Ipsos MORI poll has the Tories leaping a hefty 7 points to 43 percent, while Labour climb 2 to 26 percent, and the Lib Dems fall 6 points to 19 percent. It’s most likely a correction from their last poll – which had the Lib Dems above Labour
Now this is going to stir up some trouble. Addressing today’s Speaker’s conference, David Cameron has said that the Tories still don’t have enough women candidates, and, as a result, he may impose women-only shortlists on those constituencies which are yet to pick a candidate for the next election. Putting aside the many persuasive arguments
It’s Tuesday, so it’s time to sift through Rachel Sylvester’s column for juicy quotes. In her latest, she saves the best for last: a Cabinet minister saying that “It’s up to the brotherhood now”. No, not that brotherhood – but the brothers Miliband, Ed and David. The intimation being that they need to take over
Why argue your case when you can smear your opponent’s name? According to this morning’s Telegraph, that’s the approach that a group of MPs are taking over the Sir Thomas Legg letters. The plan they’re apparently considering is to use parliamentary questions to find out details such as Legg’s pay, his team’s expenses and how
I’m absolutely delighted to welcome Susan Hill to Spectator.co.uk’s pantheon of guest bloggers. Susan is, of course, a celebrated writer – the author of numerous works of fiction and non-fiction – but many of you will know her as an incisive commenter around these parts, as well as a frequent contributor to the print magazine.
So what’s the deal with the opinion polls we’ve been seeing in the newspapers recently? There was some hubbub in Tory circles yesterday over the fact that two weekend polls – YouGov for the Sunday Times and ComRes for the Indy on Sunday – had Labour either gaining ground on the Tories or a maintaining
Right, wrong, or somewhere in between? I imagine that a few people who were fervently behind the Legg letters started having second thoughts when Frank Field announced his opposition to them over weekend. After all, it’s one thing when the usual, venal suspects start whining, but quite another when Field – one of the decent
Just what was in Barry Sheerman’s coffee this morning? So far today, the schools committee chairman has used a couple of media appearances to a) call Ed Balls a “bully”, and b) criticise all three party leaders – including Brown – for their “cowardly party leadership” over the Legg review. Punchy stuff, which makes you
Brace yourselves. According to the Guardian, Brown is about to sell himself as a Great Reformer: “Brown, the cabinet sources say, decided in the past few weeks to adopt a tougher pro-public sector reform stance, in order that his defence of the state in the face of recent attacks on big government by David Cameron
And so it gets even messier. Today’s Telegraph reports that HMRC are conducting formal investigations into the tax affairs of 27 MPs. You see, expenses claims are only supposed to be tax-free provided that they’re wholly necessary for Parliamentary work. And, as we all know by now, quite a few of our, ahem, honourable members
One of the main questions arising out of the Legg controversy is whether MPs should put up or shut up. Like John Hutton, I tend to think that they should just pay what’s asked of them, hope that restores some public faith in the political class, and get on with reforming the expenses system for
Oh dear. Boris has just had to announce a bunch of inflation-busting fare increases for public transport in London. From January, the congestion charge will be up by 25 percent, Oyster card fares will have 20p added to them, 7-day bus passes will cost just under £3 more – and so on, and so on.
As the Legg controversy continues along its unedifying course, I can’t help but wonder what it all means for Sir Christopher Kelly’s review of the expenses system, due for publication in a few weeks’ time. The plan is that the government will go through its recommendations, adopt any it likes, and then put them to
In his recent interview with Fraser, David Cameron said that he’s keen on bringing in outside talent to the government – the so-called “Goat” strategy, which has been a feature of Brown’s premiership. In her ever-excellent column, Rachel Sylvester makes the point that this may be as much from necessity as by design: “According to
There’s little more to add to Alex’s take on the news that Geert Wilders has won his appeal against the Home Office decision to bar him from the UK. While there’s much about the Dutch MP which makes me feel uneasy, preventing him entry to this country always struck me as a needless and potentially
I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: the email exchanges between Danny Finkelstein and Philip Collins over at Comment Central are one of neatest features in the political blogosphere – always worth a read. They’ve got a new one up today, discussing how Brown should go about handling the Legg letters. Does he force
Here’s the statement from the office of the PM, courtesy of Sky’s Cheryl Smith: Mr Brown received a letter from Sir Thomas Legg this afternoon. Sir Thomas Legg has issued his provisional conclusions to MPs, asking for further information where necessary before concluding in December. Mr Brown has always supported this process and will cooperate