All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Eurosceptics may have only a few days before their ministerial colleagues can join them in campaigning for Britain to leave the European Union. But they’re currently very unhappy at the sort of briefing they’ve been hearing about what might happen to those ministers after the referendum. The official line is that the Prime Minister will not
The Tories risk playing ‘petty, grubby’ politics by planning to delay the Commons vote on Trident renewal, former head of the Navy Lord West has warned Coffee House. A group of former senior military figures, ex-ministers and MPs are writing to David Cameron and George Osborne next week to urge them to push ahead with
When Seumas Milne — the Guardian associate editor and columnist — was hired as Jeremy Corbyn’s director of communications, Labour released a statement in which they made it clear that Milne would remain on ‘indefinite leave’ from the paper while he worked for the party. The arrangement raised eyebrows at the paper and proved to be a point of contention
What sad news that the Independent is closing. In September last year, I did an investigation into the strange, celebrity-orientated world of the paper’s young owner, Evgeny Lebedev. What was intriguing was that, although Indie journalists were willing to talk — off the record — about Lebedev’s eccentricity, almost everybody I spoke to was keen to stress that,
After MPs claimed last month that the Kids Company’s closure was down to a ‘catalogue of failures’, the charity’s founder Camila Batmanghelidjh appeared on Woman’s Hour in an attempt to defend her honour. Alas things soon took a turn for the worse when she was asked why Kids Company had used charity money to send a youngster in
It was a close fight. Both sides at Tuesday night’s debate at IET London seemed to accept that trust in official health guidelines was running low. And, among the 200 or so members of the audience, that was certainly the case: a show of hands requested by the evening’s chair Andrew Neil at the start
Google ‘Mark Pearson’ and the first thing you will learn about the 51 year-old artist is that he was accused of a sex attack. You can read all about how at Waterloo Station Pearson supposedly sexually assaulted a woman before striking her. Then, if you have time, read on: and you’ll also discover this never happened.
I see that Hilary Benn has been doing his bit for ‘Project Fear‘. According to Mr Benn one of the best reasons for staying in the EU is that ‘President Putin would shed no tears if Britain left the European Union.’ So what? Caliph al-Baghdadi may laugh like a drain if we stay in. Anyone can
It was never going to be an enjoyable experience trying to defend Google in front of the Public Accounts Committee following the recent row over their tax arrangements. But the company’s European President Matt Brittin came in for a particularly torrid time as he was quizzed by Meg Hillier today. As well as appearing to
A row about the way opposition parties are funded is set to erupt in the Commons today. Labour’s Chris Bryant has an urgent question in the Commons today on Short money, which, as Coffee House readers already know, is causing a rather big row among all the Opposition parties. The government’s plans to cut the
Since Jeremy Corbyn’s election as Labour leader, the party has been dogged by rumours that George Galloway could rejoin the party. The Respect party leader — who was expelled in 2003 following his outspoken comments on the Iraq war — has called for his expulsion to be rescinded. Corbyn has refused to rule out such a move,
The magazine industry publishes its sales figures today, and we at The Spectator are delighted to announce the largest figure in our 188-year history. And not just because digital sales are doing well: it’s growth on every front. Sales of the print edition of The Spectator are growing at their fastest rate for 15 years. Subscriptions, perhaps our single most important indicator, are
According to the Times, Dan Walker, the new BBC Breakfast presenter, is ‘a creationist’. A ‘senior BBC figure’ is quoted as saying that this ‘nutty’ belief would make life difficult for Walker if, say, he had to present a story about a 75,000-year-old fossil. How could he if he thinks the earth is less than 10,000
It was a bad day in front of the Public Accounts Committee for Dame Lin Homer. Despite being the outgoing boss of HMRC, Homer admitted she was no tax expert: Meanwhile, Google boss Matt Brittin also had a miserable time in front of the committee. He was laughed at during the hearing after appearing to
This week Twitter has announced the launch of a new Trust & Safety Council measure which aims to prevent users from being subject to ‘abusive, hateful or unpleasant blather’. However, critics have claimed the council is really a censorship tool which will be used to stop unpopular viewpoints being aired — with Mr S’s colleague Brendan O’Neill
Don’t imagine that the campaign group ‘Rhodes Must Fall’ has gone away just because Rhodes didn’t fall. They’ve now issued a list of demands, including a call for Oxford to ‘acknowledge and confront its role in the ongoing violence of empire’. And if America is anything to go by, well, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
As expected, Jeremy Hunt has just announced in the Commons that he will impose the junior doctor contract after he was advised that there was no longer any chance of an agreement with the British Medical Association on the issue. And as expected, the BMA has said that it does not accept the contract and
The queues haven’t started forming outside branches in Frankfurt or Cologne yet. Even so, it is hard not to suspect that something is badly amiss at Deutsche Bank, Germany’s and indeed Europe’s mightiest financial institution, and the rock on which that economy is founded. The shares have been in freefall, and executives have been wheeled
[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/thenextrefugeecrisis/media.mp3″ title=”Simon Barnes and the Sea Watch Foundation’s Dr Peter Evans discuss whales” startat=1400] Listen [/audioplayer]Imagine if a bunch of Bollywood celebrities turned up in Britain to protest outside steak houses, lie down in front of abattoir trucks as they tried to leave beef farms and started describing Britain as ‘barbaric’ for killing cattle.
If you think it’s only crybaby students who set up safe spaces in which they might hide from gruff words and ugly sentiments, think again. More of the world beyond touchy campuses is being safe-spaced too. Consider Twitter, which this week announced the establishment of a ‘safety council’ — Orwellian much? — to ensure its
[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/thenextrefugeecrisis/media.mp3″ title=”Listen to this week’s edition of the The View From 22″] Listen [/audioplayer] In this week’s issue, Laura Pitel discusses whether the next refugee crisis emerging in Turkey could dwarf the first which has gripped Europe. Turkey has taken in two and a half million refugees – nearly three times as many as
Bernard Hogan-Howe did his best to appear calm on the Today show but it is clear he is increasingly rattled by the pressure he is under. The Met Police commissioner was on the front page of several newspapers this morning for all the wrong reasons. ‘Just say sorry’, screamed The Sun. The Daily Mail went
Housing is Jeremy Corbyn’s second favourite subject (after drainage lids). Back in the 1970s the grateful proletariat hailed his long years of service as Commissar For Council Accommodation in the People’s Republic of Haringey. At his retirement, chanting school-girls tied garlands of lilies around his brows and presented him with a commemorative Rent Book in
One of the more intriguing exchanges at today’s Prime Minister’s Questions was between Julian Lewis and David Cameron on Trident. The chairman of the Defence Select Committee asked the following: ‘The debate and vote on the Trident successor submarine should have been held in the last Parliament, but was blocked by the Liberal Democrats. Given
A walk in the park for David Cameron at PMQs this week. Jeremy Corbyn asked six questions on housing, but they were all too long and lacked any edge: they were the opposite of forensic. Cameron simply batted them away and rattled off a list of what he had done and the supposed failings of
As Labour peers prepare to join forces with Liberal Democrat peers this week to challenge the trade union bill in the House of Lords, Jeremy Corbyn is doing his bit at PMQs. The Labour leader has taken the bold step of wearing a ‘heart unions’ badge. It’s in support of an official ‘Heart Unions’ week, which
If a dirty mind is a perpetual feast, then a filthy mind is an open sewer. You see where the manure is coming from. More to the point, you know where it is going. When Galloway faced a challenge for the Bradford West seat from the Labour candidate, Naz Shah, he thought the best way
What will Jeremy Corbyn lead on today at Prime Minister’s Questions? The Labour leader could ask David Cameron about the junior doctors’ strike, about Europe, or about party funding, given Labour is currently fighting the Trade Union Bill, and given it was the Tory Black and White Ball this week. But almost as interesting as
Michael Hanlon, the science writer, has died at the age of 51. He was the science editor at the Daily Mail, and also wrote for the Independent, the Telegraph and The Spectator. A collection of his articles can be found here. In 2013, he wrote the following piece for this magazine, in which he asked why
This is an extract from the new issue of The Spectator, out tomorrow: Last week Donald Tusk, President of the European Council, tabled proposals which the government hopes will form the basis of the UK’s renegotiated relationship with the European Union. Politically, the proposals may be just the job: a new commitment to enhance competitiveness,
Manchester, New Hampshire ‘Anybody here got any student debt?’ asks Bernie Sanders halfway through his speech at a rally in a small university on Monday. He then starts conducting a fake auction. ‘What are some of the numbers you got? You? 35,000. You? 55,000? Who else? A young lady here… 100,000 dollars. You win! I
A new European banking crisis. Seriously? Starting at Deutsche Bank? That’s the way markets were pointing on Tuesday as Deutsche’s shares plunged, inter-bank liquidity shrivelled, would-be investors in bank bonds hid in the toilets and speculative short-sellers did the work of the devil. And we all know there’s no smoke without fire, right? Let’s pause
This is a bleak day for the NHS. The doctors strike has gone ahead and some 3,000 operations have been cancelled. Talks broke down last night, and the British Medical Association has shown it is quite prepared to put patients in the firing line in its dispute over a deal that would mean a pay
Manchester, New Hampshire Populism won tonight in New Hampshire. Rage against the elite won tonight in New Hampshire. Class warfare came out on top. Bernie Sanders, who wants a ‘political revolution’ to tackle ‘the billionaire class’, thrashed the former First Lady, Hillary Clinton. Donald J. Trump, the billionaire who tells everyone that only he can stop the elite buying Washington,