Gordon’s response to the floods shows that his political antennae are twitching ferociously in spite of the overall strength of his political position this weekend. If the car-bomb plot was his mini-9/11, this crisis threatens to be the new Prime Minister’s mini-Katrina. And he’s not going to repeat the errors made by Bush – who
The queue party in Hampstead was more queue than party – a few Waterstones employees in witches’ hats and T-shirts saying ‘Muggle’ wandered up and down taking notes of children who had come in fancy dress, but the atmosphere was one of cheerful patience rather than festivity, with everyone waiting patiently until a New Year’s
Coffee House has a review of the latest, and final, Harry Potter book here. The review doesn’t give too much away, but if you’re a dedicated Potter fan I’d recommend finishing the book first.
As Spectator readers would have expected, this magazine was an early and enthusiastic backer of Boris Johnson as the next Mayor of London. On 4 July we gave him our official endorsement and urged him to run on our Coffee House blog (new.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse). Now that he has thrown his bandana in the ring, we shall
What makes Dick Cheney so unusual a Vice President is that he knows this is his last gig. He really couldn’t give two hoots who he ticks off because after this it is time for the carpet slippers. When Bush picked Cheney in 2000, the general view was that this was a good thing as
I am of the “Harry Potter Generation”, but truthfully, the massive hype really puts me off the whole thing. I wish I could escape it. Inevitably there are some of my friends who are proud of their Harry Potter obsessions, but not many. It’s for kids and ‘big kids’, right? It’s not very cool. I
Writing on the eve of the most over-hyped book release in history (dare I mention the title), I find myself lost. Never in history has such overexcitement surrounded a book franchise. So what happens when I, a 16 year-old boy, am surrounded by Harry Potter gossip? How do I respond? With a blank expression and a
My thoughts on today’s drama 1. Yates will be hopping mad if (as is believed) he recommended charges against Jonathan Powell and others. He may see this as the second time he’s been shafted by the establishment. 2. No criminality doesn’t mean no wrongdoing said Martin Bright, my counterpart at the New Statesman in a Week in
In a piece keying off the Beckhams arrival in the States, Time magazine tries to explain what unites the English-speaking peoples and comes up with an interesting, distinctly non-Churchillian answer: Britain is now just about as open and classless a society as the U.S. (The Beckhams’ habits are far more typical of modern Britain than
The Tory result in Ealing Southall is a setback for David Cameron that ensures he will be on the back foot over the summer. To come a poor third after Cameron’s repeated visits to the seat is embarrassing and suggests that the Cameron message is not resonating as strongly as it should be. Recriminations on
Both the BBC and The Times are reporting that there will be no charges in the ‘cash for honours’ inquiry.
Alistair Darling took drugs in his youth. Words fail me.
Bill Clinton hits back at Elizabeth Edwards’s suggestion that his wife is denying her own femininity in her bid to be elected president.
Amidst all the talk about file-sharing sites having copies of the new Harry Potter book, it is somehow reassuring to find that the newspaper that has the first review (it’s here, but don’t read it unless you want to have a strong idea of how the story ends) got hold of their copy the old
So far we know from previous reports that Hazel Blears, Ruth Kelly, Yvette Cooper and Caroline Flint have admitted to taking drugs in the past. Jack Straw, the brothers Miliband, Peter Hain and, of course, Gordon Brown have said they have never taken them.
Denis Skinner, the Beast of Bolsover, has taken to making drug jokes at David Cameron in the chamber
“Can you believe it?” Every time Barbra Streisand remembered how long it was since she had first sung a song, visited a town, tried a local delicacy – “1961!” – 23,000 adoring fans agreed that, no, it was quite unbelievable. Most of the audience at the 02 arena last night could not quite believe they
Today sees the launch of an intriguing new international group, The Elders. It is a collection of aging, diplomatic all-stars who will join forces to push issues up the international agenda. The cast is pretty stellar: Nelson Mandela and his wife, Desmond Tutu, Kofi Annan, Jimmy Carter, Muhammad Yunus et al. The whole idea makes sense–even if
From the always entertaining Beau Bo D’Or
