Just a reminder that the latest Spectator/Intelligence Squared debate – “All schools, state as well as private should be allowed to select their own pupils” – begins at 18:45 tonight. The speakers for the motion are Professor Chris Woodhead, the former Chief Inspector of Schools; Martin Stephen, High Master of St Paul’s School; and the Rt Hon Lord Tebbit. Whilst those against
Be sure to check out some of the posts made over the weekend: Fraser Nelson sets out the Coffee House ethos, and also charts Britain’s spiraling drugs problem. Peter Hoskin suggests that Gordon Brown should shift into “short-term mode” in order to regain credibility. James Forsyth reflects on how the Tories can seize the political
This turbulent priest Sir: Seeing that it was I who wrote the article in The Spectator five and a half years ago advancing the case for choosing Rowan Williams as Archbishop of Canterbury the week before he was actually shortlisted for the job, I have something of an obligation to ask myself whether I got
History may not judge the Northern Rock fiasco to be Labour’s Black Wednesday. Instead, the banking saga might yet become to Gordon Brown what ‘sleaze’ was to John Major. The potential symmetry is one of form, not content (there is no hint of personal corruption in the saga of the collapsed bank). Just as ‘sleaze’
With Boris again laying into Gordon Brown, CoffeeHousers should remember to have their say on the latter’s most misleading statements. What tops your list of Brownies?
Pause for tort Sir: Reading Sir David Tang’s diary last week, in which he recounts the story of me ‘Googling’ him on a train, made me reflect on how recollections of events can differ between honest witnesses. My own diary for that day read as follows: ‘Am sitting on the train trying to work when
If there is a posture that will be indelibly associated with the Chancellorship of Alistair Darling — brief though it may turn out to be — it is that of a man forced into retreat under a hail of ridicule. Last month he backed away from ill-thought-out proposals to reform capital gains tax in the
The Spectator announced its eleventh consecutive growth in sales this week and with its success in mind we will be launching a new title, The Spectator Business. These are exciting times ahead for us as we begin to expand our current coverage of news analysis and comment through our new monthly title, The Spectator Business,
Yesterday, we posted a letter by Wajid Shamsul Hasan, the former Pakistan High Commissioner to London, in which he took issue with a Coffee House post by Rani Singh. Here, Rani responds to his points: Dear Wajid, Thank you for your comments of yesterday. I wrote in a recent blog post that Musharraf has been “doing cuddly”. In
Coffee House was recently sent the following letter from Wajid Shamsul Hasan, the former Pakistan High Commissioner to London: Sir, Your report by Rani Singh made quite a jolly read, referring to Musharraf’s ‘feminine side’, his liking for the arts’ and, as you put it, doing cuddly’. Does one detect the influence of Musharraf’s well-oiled
Nip terror in the bud Sir: Correlli Barnett would have us believe Con Coughlin is suffering from paranoia and describes George Bush’s ‘war on terror’ as stale rhetoric (Letters, 2 February). One wonders what ailment Correlli Barnett suffers from — perhaps ‘paranoiac denial’ is a fair diagnosis. Could he inform us which countries, if any,
Why have the US primaries been so gripping? Partly because they are suffused with an optimism and energy that is conspicuously lacking from domestic British politics; partly because the world cannot wait for the Bush era to reach its bleak conclusion; partly because the contest has been a rollercoaster ride, with a nail-biting finish still
…here’s one for all you art-lovers out there: A thief in Paris planned to steal some paintings from the Louvre. After careful planning, he got past security, stole the paintings and made it safely to his van. However, he was captured only two blocks away when his van ran out of gas. When asked how
We’ve just posted an important piece by Martin Vander Weyer on the sub prime hurricane passing through the financial markets, you can read it here.
Phoney war Sir: I was sorry to see that Con Coughlin (‘Agent Brown’s new plan to smash terror’, 26 January) has now joined the likes of poor William Shawcross on the pottier side of paranoia in asserting that the occasional acts of Islamist terrorism in the United Kingdom over recent years mean that ‘we are
Here are some brute facts: the Conservative party still has fewer seats than Michael Foot won in the 1983 general election. To win an overall majority in the House of Commons, David Cameron requires a national swing of 7.1 per cent (compared to the 5.3 per cent achieved by Margaret Thatcher in 1979). For all
John McCain has won Florida and is now the overwhelming favourite to win the Republican nomination. McCain has been further boosted by the news that Rudy Giuliani will likely endorse him in the next day or two. More on McCain’s victory at Americano.
Have a heart Sir: I was longing to disagree with Rod Liddle that organ donation should continue to depend upon a positive act to opt into the programme (‘Hands off my organs’, 19 January). However, Mr Brown’s plans include New Labour’s usual targets and tick-boxes. This means that hospitals would be allocated funding according to
Since the words ‘credit crunch’ entered the public lexicon last summer, many politicians and pundits on both sides of the Atlantic have maintained a state of blithe denial about the economic danger signals that were increasingly apparent. But this week, amid worldwide stock-market turbulence, some painful truths have been confirmed. In Washington, the Federal Reserve
Last night, The Spectator and Intelligence Squared hosted a debate on whether it would be better to bomb Iran than let it develop nuclear weapons. The speakers for the motion included the former CIA Middle East specialist Reuel Marc Gerecht and the political scientists Emanuele Ottolenghi and Bruno Tertrais. Sir Richard Dalton, the former British