Here are some of the posts made over the weekend on Spectator.co.uk: Fraser Nelson reports from the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham. He gives his first impressions of the conference; applauds Boris Johnson’s speech; and analyses George Osborne’s plans for an Office for Budget Responsibility. James Forsyth claims that indiscipline should worry the Tories as
Storing up more trouble Sir: Your leading article (20 September) calls for a ‘kick up the backside’ to the banking industry. That kick should be aimed elsewhere. The British and American governments have not merely permitted this crisis to happen, but positively created it by a deliberate relaxation of monetary controls. Worse still, they have
For all its stunts, vacuities and plain deceptions, there was something undeniably compelling about Gordon Brown’s conference speech in Manchester. Here was an old stager, battered and bruised, giving his all to what may be his last such performance as Labour leader and Prime Minister. Even as he claimed to deplore the cult of political
Here are some of the posts made during the past week on Spectator.co.uk: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, writes that Marx was partly right about capitalism. Jon Cruddas continues his Labour conference diary. You can read parts 5 and 6 here and here, respectively. Theo Hobson outlines the Creationism debate. Matthew d’Ancona gives his
We’ve just uploaded Michael Henderson’s culture picks. You can read them by clicking here.
COFFEE HOUSE CHALLENGE WINNER: A few weeks ago, we asked CoffeeHousers to “sell” a Cabinet. The winning entry is the post by ‘Ian’. Congratulations to Ian – to claim the prize of a bottle of champagne please send an email to phoskin @ spectator.co.uk. And here are some of the posts made over the weekend at spectator.co.uk:
Reports of my death Sir: I was astonished to read in John Michell’s review of Michael X: A Life in Black and White (13 September) that I died 35 years ago. Michell states that I went to Trinidad to investigate the murder, by henchmen of Michael X, of my sister Gale Benson, and that later
Detached amusement might describe the reaction of many people to the sight of well-paid Lehman Brothers employees being escorted off the bank’s premises, carrying their personal possessions in champagne boxes tucked beneath their arms. Displaying either greed or financial acumen to the last, one newly unemployed banker managed to buy himself 30 bananas to use
Here are some of the posts made over the past week on Spectator.co.uk: Fraser Nelson thinks that Brown’s rollercoaster fall may be stabilising for now, and shows how Nick Clegg’s tax cuts are a con. James Forsyth explains why the Tories need to face up to some tough tax decisions, and advises the Labour rebels
Quotes have been released from the Sky News interview with the Prime Minister tonight, and one catches my eye. He talks about City firms misbehaving. Kay Burley asks him how. He answers: “What we are discovering is that there were large off balance sheet activities that were being run by some of the major companies in the
For more, see Trading Floor.
…here are some of the posts made over the weekend at spectator.co.uk: Fraser Nelson ponders whether the McDonagh insurgency is doomed to failure, and thinks that Zac Goldsmith’s role as a “green-witness” could have hurt the Tories. James Forsyth looks at who could take on Brown in a leadership contest, and shows that David Miliband
My husband’s club was closed in August, which meant, paradoxically, that I saw less of him, because he enjoyed the chance to exercise reciprocal rights at other clubs, which I suspect might not have welcomed him as a member in the first place. Sitting in some smokeless smoking-room he took to reading the Financial Times,
Taking care of Toby Sir: Kirsten Dunst never insisted that I ban Toby Young (Status anxiety, 6 September) from the set of How To Lose Friends & Alienate People. Toby’s piece stemmed from a recent article of mine in Empire magazine. In his opening paragraph, he says he learned from it that ‘the reason I
Last week, at a cost of a billion pounds or so, the Chancellor announced a package of measures to boost the housing market, including a temporary raising of the stamp duty threshold and some tinkering with shared equity schemes and social housing budgets. In response, the pound — already depressed by Alistair Darling’s observation that
Here are some of the posts made over the past week on Spectator.co.uk: Fraser Nelson shows that Balls still hasn’t got the right schools policy and highlights Brown’s immigration and jobs fudge. James Forsyth shows how Cameron and Osborne differ on Iraq and explores the dangers of a Tory Brown bubble. Peter Hoskin picks
A self-standing quote from a Telegraph story entitled “Gordon Brown takes part in children’s reality show”: “Broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby is the Sir Alan Sugar figure in the 10-part [children’s TV] series Election, which is being filmed at the moment for CBBC. [Gordon] Brown will meet the victor in the final episode and hear their thoughts on democracy
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On the latest Spectator letters page you’ll find a response by Robert Weide to Toby Young’s Status Anxiety column last week. Weide’s the director of the forthcoming film of Toby’s semi-autobiographical book How to Lose Friends and Alienate People, and he objects to Toby’s account of the actress Kirsten Dunst’s on-set behaviour. As Weide puts
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