No question about it: when a frontbencher breaks ranks flagrantly, a party leader who hopes to be seen as strong must sack him. Many people agreed with Howard Flight’s remarks about tax cuts in 2005, but Michael Howard had no option but to fire him. So it was only a matter of time before the
It’s Memorial Day in the United States today, the official beginning of summer. Fierce Americans mark the day by beating their war drums; gentle Americans by beating their breasts. The newspapers, as usual, are full of improving homilies and exhortations. But this year there is something different, something inspiring and humbling. In the Washington Post
The media section of today’s Guardian has a very telling piece on how the PM in waiting’s closest allies are at the heart of various efforts to dampen down the effects of freedom of information act. Yet, at the Hay on Wye festival Brown promised that the bill to exempt MPs from Freedom of Information
Tony Blair’s piece in the Sunday Times echoes some familiar themes of his. But the language seems blunter than usual, perhaps because it is not broken up by the Prime Minister’s verbal mannerisms. He pronounces that, “We have chosen as a society to put the civil liberties of the suspect, even if a foreign national,
Is it right to aspire? Sir: According to your leading article, ‘The Tory party is a party of aspiration or it is nothing’ (19 May). If this means that the Tory party is a party in the interest primarily of that ambitious minority which wants to rise in the world, then I should like to
This review of Gordon Brown’s book on Courage from Blair’s pollster Philip Gould is absolutely fascinating. This is his take on Brown’s chapter on Bobby Kennedy’s career: “its fascination for Brown, is Kennedy’s metamorphosis from “hard” to “soft” courage in the course of his later life, moving from tough-guy enforcer to open, empowering and empathetic
It’s Saturday afternoon, and I can’t quite shake the chill that came over me when watching Friday’s Newsnight. They were still on how Margaret Hodge suggested giving Brits priority over immigrants for council houses. They had Keith Vaz MP attacking her – and for the defence, Nick Griffin, head of the BNP, debating like a
When I became Editor of the Spec, I mentioned to one interviewer that “Pretty Vacant” by the Sex Pistols was my favourite pop record. This, most entertainingly, was declared by some in the blogosphere to mark, definitively, the death of punk. Last night’s Ten O’Clock News included an item on punk’s 30th anniversary, including an
Here is what Alan Johnson, the Education Secretary, told a Fabian Society and Progress debate for the Labour deputy leadership contenders on 16 May: ‘For our party audience, if you said, yes, we will ban those grammar schools where they exist at the moment, it would get a round of applause. The reason why the
“A man’s first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his heart; his next, to escape the censures of the world.” Joseph Addison, The Spectator, July 20, 1711
When I heard that they had covered Trafalgar Square in grass my reaction was that it was a ghastly gimmick. But having seen it, I’ve got to admit that it looks fantastic. Even though the weather hasn’t been the best in London these past few days, it has created the best type of summer-time
I’ve been having a Wagnerian time of it lately, organizing a festival of events to coincide with the Royal Opera’s performances of the Ring cycle in October. On Wednesday I was deep in the Nibelheim-like bowels of the Royal Opera House, recording extracts from Wagner’s letters with Simon Callow. He read with the most spine-tingling
One of the guests at our third Elgar concert at The Spectator’s offices in Old Queen Street last night shrewdly pointed out the oddity that the great composer does not seem to travel as well as, say, Vaughan Williams. Listening to Madeleine Mitchell (violin) and Nigel Clayton (piano) perform the sublime Violin Sonata (Op. 82)
Why does David Cameron keep insulting his party? It’s a question plenty of Tories are asking and the answer is buried on p33 of The Times today. Its new chief political correspondent, Francis Elliot (he of the indispensable Cameron biography) has disclosed that the party’s research shows its voters are suspicious of “the same old
Thirteen of the last fourteen nominees from the two major US parties have won the first primary state of Iowa. The odd one out? A certain Bill Clinton in 1992, who only won 3% of the Iowa vote, to Iowa local Tom Harkin’s 76%. The Hillary campaign have now officially rejected the strategy of “skipping”
Peter Wilby thinks he might in an effort to establish his middle England credentials. Can’t see it myself, though.
If you want to know how much the race for the Democratic presidential nomination has changed since people thought that Hillary just had to turn up to win, read this story about how Team Clinton is contemplating skipping the first contest of the season in Iowa. The strategy actually makes some sense given Hillary’s relative weakness there
A hot, hot night in a Portobello Road boookshop for a poetry reading (see my earlier post) hosted by the excellent Pass on a Poem and Oxfam, in aid of Darfur and Chad. As I stand up to read “The Day He Died” by Ted Hughes, I notice Saffron Burrows sitting in the back row
DVD release of the week is Rocky Balboa, the sixth and final instalment of the boxing saga. Yes, I know the idea of the 60-year-old Sylvester Stallone climbing into the ring again is innately absurd, but all of the Rocky movies, including the first which won the Oscar for Best Picture in 1976, have been
According to the Youth Justice Board, most teenage “gangs” should be referred to less abrasively as “groups”. Which makes me think how very different Martin Scorsese’s movie would have been if it had been called Groups of New York. I doubt Goodfellas would have made such an impact if it had begun with the line:
