The Spectator

Portrait of the week | 26 November 2011

Home David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said: ‘Getting debt under control is proving harder than anyone envisaged.’ In a speech to the Confederation of British Industry he blamed in part ‘paralysis in the eurozone’. His words came a week before the Chancellor was due to make his autumn statement, and the Office for Budget Responsibility

The technocrats’ coup

Just a few weeks ago, calling someone a ‘technocrat’ was a soft insult. The word meant, in effect, an efficient dullard. Now, technocrats appear to be inheriting the earth. They represent a new global elite, and they have recently added Greece and Italy to their empire. When Egypt’s military faced riots on the streets this

The week that was | 25 November 2011

Here are some of the posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the past week: The Spectator Book Blog interviewed Tottenham MP David Lammy about the riots. Fraser Nelson says that George Osborne has chosen more debt over more cuts, and asks: how ambitious is Cameron on Europe? James Forsyth pinpoints Ed Miliband’s opportunity in the economic

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 21-27 November 2011

Welcome to the latest CoffeeHousers’ Wall. For those who haven’t come across the Wall before, it’s a post we put up each Monday, on which — providing your writing isn’t libellous, crammed with swearing, or offensive to common decency — you’ll be able to say whatever you like in the comments section. There is no

Just in case you missed them… | 21 November 2011

…here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. Fraser Nelson thinks Nigel Lawson’s right: blaming ‘global imbalances’ for our economic problems does no one any good, and says a good many in the British establishment will be worried about what Saif Gaddafi may reveal. James Forsyth says we can’t forget the

Letters | 19 November 2011

• Not so magnifico Sir: To identify Silvio Berlusconi as Italy’s ‘best hope of cutting its astronomical sovereign debt’, as Nicholas Farrell does (‘Arrivederci il Magnifico,’ 12 November), would be laughable, if it didn’t show such deep ignorance of the damage Berlusconi’s rule has done economically, politically and morally. Mr Farrell suggests that Berlusconi is

Barometer | 19 November 2011

• Found in the trash The Information Commissioner warned Oliver Letwin that he has broken the law by dumping documents, including letters from constituents, into litter bins in St James’s Park. Here are some things the world would never have had were it not for documents turning up in rubbish bins: —A letter suggesting that

Portrait of the week | 19 November 2011

•Home The crisis in the eurozone was ‘an opportunity to begin to refashion the EU so it better serves this nation’s interests’, David Cameron, the Prime Minister, said in his Mansion House speech. George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said in a television interview: ‘There’s got to be more integration — the kind of