So Tony Blair is off to the Middle East as peace envoy – not for the US, but for the “Quartet” of UN, EU, America and Russia. His decision to accept this role, and so soon, is more eloquent than any of the (many) farewell speeches he has made. First, it shows that he regards
Iain Dale has an interesting post up on the gossip amongst Westminster lobby correspondents that Charles Clarke might return to government this week. He writes that, “None of us could come up with a reason why Gordon Brown would reward a man who has spent the last few months dissing him.” But it is precisely
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I use to think that Blair’s desire to go to the European summit himself was a little bit vain and born of nothing more than a desire to give Jacques Chirac an Agincourt salute by outlasting him. But now, the cleverness of the move has dawned on me. By making the EU summit his final
The news that the German government has banned Tom Cruise from filming at the defence ministry on the grounds that he is a Scientologist will reopen the whole debate about whether or not Scientology is a religion. The Germans take a very dim view of it; 4 of its biggest political parties even bar Scientologists from joining.
If you think Glastonbury is silly, click on the BBC News website and watch the clip of 2,000 heavy metal fans playing Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” in Stuttgart. This, as any fule kno, is one of the most over-rated songs in the history of pop music, plodding and portentous, opening with a mindless
The price of tuna is now so high that Japanese sushi chefs are considering making their dish with raw horse meat and cuts of smoked deer instead of the traditional tuna. The Japanese, who eat three quarters of the tuna caught each year, are victims of sushi’s global success; it is the new found demand for
Here’s what I wish David Cameron had said when discussing social mobility with John Humphrys this morning. The reason I’m in politics, John, is to address the problem you’ve just highlighted. Belief in social mobility is stamped in the DNA of the Conservatives – and perhaps the most scandalous failure of Labour these last ten
Wimbledon fortnight starts today with appropriately awful weather and with Ten Henman left to fly the flag for Britain after Andrew Murray dropped out with injury. But before all the folk on Henman Hiil get too excited, it’s worth pointing out that Henman is 200-1 with the bookies to win Wimbledon. To put that in
Brown has, what the Americans call, the big mo right now. He looks like the man in command and that is dictating how events are seen. Take the job offer to Ashdown and the Lib Dems, if Brown was perceived as weak this could have been seen as desperate, a recognition that Labour is unlikely
“As good as it gets,” said Tony Blair of Gordon Brown. What he meant was: “As good as it got”, which is not quite the same thing. It is no secret that Mr Blair wanted someone to run against the Chancellor. But it did not happen, and here we all are. And so today, with
I love how Gordon Brown walked on stage, as if he’d just won a vote of some kind. “I will endeavour to justify every day the trust you have placed in me,” – err no, Gordon, you successfully scared off all your rivals, there was no vote and folk were just landed with you. Anyway,
So a minister who was dumped from the cabinet for not being up to the job in 1998 is now the deputy leader of the Labour party. Listening to her speech, it became clear how Labour under Brown will attack Cameron. She accused the Tory leader of “opportunism, weakness, no sense of direction”. She also
The Labour deputy leadership results are a total shambles. The BBC is reporting that Harman’s won but they don’t seem really sure. If she has won, then it is a remarkable triumph for mediocrity.
To put today’s coronation of Gordon Brown as Labour leader into historical perspective – with the exception of leaders who have stepped into the breach temporarily after deaths (George Brown after Hugh Gaitskell, and Margaret Beckett after John Smith), there has not been an uncontested succession since George Lansbury took the helm in October 1931.
Lie of the land Sir: In the past few weeks Hamas has shown itself to be a merciless, power-hungry organisation with little interest in the well-being of its own people, let alone that of its Jewish neighbours, so Dr Hamad must be laughing into his cup of Earl Grey tea at the ease with which
As Matt points out below, whether we have a referendum or not is a political not a legal question. In ruling one out, Gordon Brown is banking on David Cameron not wanting to risk looking Europe-obsessed by banging on about the need for one. (I can already hear Brown taunting Cameron at PMQs with lines
The great choreographer and negotiator got what he wanted: four red lines on a shirt. Tony Blair is claiming complete victory in his final summit, and the negotiators are particularly relieved that the complexities of voting rights have been kicked into touch till 2014 (what will Blair be doing then? And Gordon?). But, with the
By the time the next issue of The Spectator hits the news-stands, Tony Blair will have battled his way through his last EU summit; the Labour party will have elected a new leader and deputy leader; and Britain will have a new Prime Minister who will be busy forming his government. Harold Wilson’s over-quoted remark
Berlin Mentioning Poland’s suffering in World War II is usually a sure way to win sympathy and shut down argument. But this week Polish politicians may have pushed the “Christ of Nations” act a bit too far. Explaining his intransigence over EU vote distribution – which has led to a diplomatic train wreck at this
