Christmas is almost here, so it’s time for our annual year in review podcast. In this View from 22 hour-long special, I’m delighted to be joined by a stellar line-up of Spectator contributors to look back on the events of the past twelve months, as well as asking each of our guests for their person of 2015.
Nigel Farage popped up on the Daily Politics today to warn Douglas Carswell that critical comments about his leadership cannot continue. The Ukip leader said the Clacton MP’s views don’t have any particular significance, despite the fact he is the only Kipper who was elected in May’s general election: ‘Well he did but so what? He’s one person. So what? We
Douglas Carswell set off a bomb in Ukip this morning, declaring that the party needs a ‘fresh face’ and it should become an ‘optimistic, sunshine, smiley, socially liberal, unapologetically free market party’. These comments have been interpreted as a leadership challenge to Nigel Farage, who has in turn told Carswell to ‘put up or shut up’ — i.e. challenge
David Cameron is heading off to a European Council meeting tomorrow, where talks will continue on reforming Britain’s relationship with Brussels. But this will not yield results instantly, according to one of his predecessors. Sir John Major explained on the Today programme this morning why Thursday and Friday won’t be ‘high noon’ for these talks: ‘It’s a process, there
Two new opinion polls suggest that support is growing for Britain to leave the European Union. Today’s Daily Telegraph reports on an ICM survey which shows that half of voters back Brexit, if the undecideds are excluded: the first time since 2013 that voters are evenly split. But when the undecided voters are included, it is a much tighter split:
Children’s services in local government will be taken over if they are deemed to be failing by Ofsted, David Cameron is announcing today. In an effort to avoid child abuse cases such as those in Rochdale and Rotherham, the government will carry out about more emergency inspections and services which fail to improve within six months will
So how has America reacted to Donald Trump’s proposal to stop all Muslim immigration? Has the Donald gone too far? Not at all, according to the Wall Street Journal and NBC News: Trump has overtaken former neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who has fallen back into fourth place on 11 per cent. Trump remains the frontrunner, now
Many suspect that the latest delay on a third runway at Heathrow is actually the government bending to the will of Zac Goldsmith. On the Daily Politics today, the Conservative’s London mayoral candidate said he hadn’t been consulted on the latest delay — all the communications have been one-way from him to the government, apparently — but he still welcomed the decision: ‘It’s an
Tony Blair was hauled up in front of the sparsely-attended Foreign Affairs select committee today for a grilling about his links to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi — particularly around the time of the 2011 uprising. The former prime minister said he met with Gaddafi ‘once or twice’ because ‘it was important to bring them in from the cold’.
‘Gutless’ is how this morning’s papers are describing the government’s decision to yet again delay the decision on where in the South East to build a new runway. On the Today programme this morning, the Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin attempted to explain why the government has changed its mind — noting ‘we could have said we couldn’t have taken this
Michael Gove’s tenure as Justice Secretary has been notable for U-turns on the most controversial things done by his predecessor, Chris Grayling. At Justice Questions in the Commons today, Gove confirmed another policy reversal to MPs which emerged last week: the criminal courts charge. Since April, the charge meant that convicted criminals had to pay £150
The flooding in Cumbria is continuing to cause misery for thousands of people and as often happens in these situations, attention has turned onto whether the government has done enough to protect people. Liz Truss, the Environment Secretary, popped up on the Today programme to defend the government’s flood defence plans. She described what has happened in
Now Jeremy Corbyn has passed his first electoral test in Oldham West, the Conservatives are focusing on the next one: the 2016 London Mayor election. CCHQ has launched SadiqWatch today, a new website which shows off the Tories’ lines of attack against Sadiq Khan for the first time. Just like the Not Ken Again site from the 2012 Mayoral race,
David Cameron is marking his tenth anniversary as Conservative party leader with a speech in the West Midlands today on one of the party’s core issues: home ownership. The Prime Minister will announce an expansion of the shared ownership scheme — which allows people to part-buy and part-rent a property — by scrapping existing rules:
Labour has won the Oldham West and Royton by-election. Jim McMahon has returned the seat with a 10,835 majority, down from 14,738 in May’s general election. Although there were some wobbles during the short campaign, it appears Labour has put in a very good performance, increasing its vote share by seven per cent, while Ukip has again come
It was meant to be about open debate and discussion, consensus through dialogue. But so far, Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labour party and the arrival of the so-called New Politics has resulted in division and a lot of abuse and bad feeling. In light of last night’s vote on Syria airstrikes, Twitter and Facebook
Are the elderly and poor the real victims of climate change? In this week’s View from 22 podcast, presented by Isabel Hardman, Matt Ridley and Michael Jacobs debate the Paris climate change conference and whether politicians are too concerned about protecting ‘our grandchildren’. What is the point of this conference and will anything be achieved?
A bizarre video has been released on the YouTube channel of Leave.EU, one of the campaigns vying for the official Brexit nomination. It was entitled ‘We Are At War Again’ and tweeted through its official account – before it was swiftly taken offline. Coffee House has received a copy of the video. You can watch it above. In the
The House of Commons has voted to carry out airstrikes in Syria this evening by a majority of 174, but today’s debate has been overshadowed by an incredible speech from Hilary Benn. In this View from 22 podcast special, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and I discuss the implications of the Commons vote and what the shadow foreign secretary’s address
Today’s debate and vote on airstrikes in Syria has already descended into name calling. At last night’s meeting of Conservative MPs, David Cameron reportedly urged his party to vote for the airstrikes because: ‘You should not be walking through the lobbies with Jeremy Corbyn and a bunch of terrorist sympathisers’ It’s a line that echoes the Tories’ prior